Background

Efficient management of pipeline operations is vital for the seamless flow of oil, natural gas, and other fossil fuel materials. This encompasses supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), leak detection, and overall field operation and maintenance. These pipelines may span from power plants and refineries to cross-country or international networks. To ensure uninterrupted pipeline operations, a robust monitoring system is imperative. This system should integrate intelligent optimization to facilitate proactive responses to equipment breakdowns or leaks, coupled with forward planning and effective data visualization for informed decision-making.

Solution

The key to achieving this level of operational excellence lies in the functionality of PI systems, such as Asset Framework (AF) and PI Vision. When integrated with AVEVA SCADA and an Enterprise pipeline management solution, these systems play a pivotal role in streamlining pipeline operations. They assist in optimizing leak detection configurations, setting thresholds, and determining integrity-related shutdown setpoints. Moreover, they contribute to enhancing current pipeline operations and proposing new operational strategies even before pipelines become operational.

By identifying potential issues and analyzing them preemptively, these integrated systems help avoid false alarm notifications. This approach contributes to increased operational efficiency, reduced energy consumption, and the utilization of operational data to provide decisive answers regarding pipeline integrity shutdowns. Early insights into potential challenges are gained, allowing for timely intervention and, consequently, an increase in asset reliability. In essence, the seamless integration of intelligent systems and visualization tools leads to a proactive, efficient, and reliable pipeline operation management strategy.

The solution is potential to be deployed across pipelines where Shell has vested interest and can bring in significant value generation through PI suite of applications.