SPE 132289

Unmanned Offshore Platforms: Automation Kit

A. Pinosofa, PT Pertamina EP; A.J. Ramirez, Pequiven; O.S. Cortazar Cruz, Pemex; Y. Ravelo, Ecopetrol;
G. Yermagaliyeva, KazMunayGaz

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Copyright 2010, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Trinidad and Tobago Energy Resources Conference held in Port of Spain, Trinidad, 27–30 June 2010.

This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been
reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its
officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce
in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
In the extreme volatile oil & gas market, all the operators are focusing on cost reduction to maximize the profits. Site personnel
represent one of the top OPEX contributors to the offshore operation, either in term of direct as well as indirect costs. Each
position in the offshore site implies an average of 2.5 people to assure the plant operation. Those prople are organized in multiple
shifts to cover the full site time requirement. As direct cost, this means an average of € 500k/year per each skilled position. Each
position implies also a set of indirect costs related to the logistics such as : mobilization, board & lodging and related service,
sometimes very expensive.
Decrease or limit the man effort at site would bring a great impact to the operation effectiveness. Turbocompressor units usually
represent the core equipment in the platform.
Could it reduce the site men effort to monitor, control & diagnosis the equipment remotely onshore? Could it improve the
reliability and availability to minimize the daily maintenance? Is that really something brings value to operators? Should the OEM
focus automation packages to retrofit exiting units or change design approach of the next generation of equipment?
Proper market analysis in this paper as well as real voice of the operators and experience can answer to those questions. And also
in this paper will demonstrate a biz case the value the hypotetical automation kit could bring to the operators.

Introduction
Oil & gas industry will keep growing in line with human needed of energy, despite there are some substitute of energy resources
comes from bio energy, solar energy etc. oil & gas still become the best priority to produced due to economical consideration.
However, the oil & gas are non renewable resources and there are less of remaining resources in all over the world compare with
human needed for certain periods. Now we need a lot of exploration activity in order to find new reserves.
Some offshore oil & gas exploration activities are being done in all part of the world, we believe there are still a lot of reserves
burried deep inside the sea.
The most interesting things come from Infield Energy Analysts, they publish the report about the worldwide fixed platform market
(“Global Perspective Fixed Platform Market Update 2008”). Infield forecasts that CAPEX spend over the next five years from
2008 for the fixed platform market is expected to be US$. 60 billion, huges amount of money, it is represent a great interesting
from oil & gas companies to exploitation proved reserves in offshore fields.
Obviously, this forecast however give great opportunities to all over the stakeholder at this bussiness. Expecially to those are who
have the relevant package system & equipment manufactures industries that used in the fixed offshore platform.
But the other side, almost all of exsisting production platform in the world have the same problem, most of them come from
increasing of operational expenditures (OPEX). The main contributor costs are site personnel, for each skilled position must be
cover by 2.5 people because of multiple shifts.
In the present day, there are the new age of information technology (IT), state of the art which combine between IT & control
system. These kind of technologies offer many things of facilitation in order to solve the OPEX problem as well as reduce the
costs.
Offshore platform operation can not apart from automation technology applications, at least for local automatic control using
Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) & Distributed Control System (DCS), some Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition
2 SPE 132289

(SCADA) application (generally used for remote control sich as for pipeline control) used by control buoy. But those application
are not dedicated for platform remote control as well as unmanned offshore platform operation.
With this application could be a great oportunity to reduce costs by reduce the men site effort to monitor, control & diagnosis the
offshore platform, at least there are few site personnel still work on platform. The rest of them stay in onshore and they will go to
platform base on demand. It will bring impact to the operational costs effectiveness.
Some oil & gas companies have been try to apply the automation technology as well as remote control for their offshore fixed
platforms, now they expect that platform could become unmanned offshore platforms which could bring a lot of advantages such
as reduce operational costs and benefits from health, safety & environment aspect.
Fixed platforms become the area of interest in this paper because most commonly these platforms located near from onshore.

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Offshore Platform Market Analysis
Offshore Platform Types
Offshore structures are used worldwide for a variety of functions and in a variety of water depths, and environments. Offshore
oil/gas exploration (and drilling) platforms can be of the following types (Figure 1) :
The Converted jackup barges
These platforms are the rarest, and may be used in remote areas with relatively shallow water depths. Chevron (ZAGOC) uses
some offshore Congo in the Lukami field, for example.
The fixed tower structures
These platforms are the most common offshore Louisiana and Texas coasts in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) (Note: check those
are even most common worldwide). These structures vary in size and height, and can be used in water depths up to about 300
meters, although most commonly in water depths less than 150 meters. Within this category there are 4-leg, 6-leg, and 8-leg
towers and also minimal structures whose decks are supported by a single unbraced or pile-braced caisson. The minimal structures
are used in water depths less than 50 meters.
The Tension Leg Platforms
These platforms are used in water depths greater than 300 meters. They consist of a floating deck structure anchored to pile
heads on the sea floor by means of long pipes, which are always kept in tension, and thus can be flexible without risk of a column
buckling collapse failure due to very high Kl/r ratios. ( The slenderness of columns is indicated by the Kl/r ratio; the higher the
ratio, the lower the compression allowable stress. )
The SPAR platforms
These platforms are used in very deep water exploration, beyond the continental shelf. The SPAR is a vertical floating cylinder
attached, by means of cables, to anchors placed on the seafloor more than a kilometer away.
Others: FPSO, Control Buoys and Subsea Equipment
A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading vessel (FPSO; also called a "unit" and a "system") is a type of floating tank
system used by the offshore oil and gas industry and designed to take all of the oil or gas produced from a nearby platform (s) or
templates, process it, and store it until the oil or gas can be offloaded onto waiting tankers, or sent through a pipeline. This unit are
particularly effective in remote or deepwater locations where seabed pipelines are not cost effective. FPSOs eliminate the need to
lay expensive long-distance pipelines from the oil well to an onshore terminal. They can also be used economically in smaller oil
fields which can be exhausted in a few years and do not justify the expense of installing a fixed oil platform. Once the field is
depleted, the FPSO can be moved to a new location.
Each types of these platforms are chosen mainly on some aspect : water depth, type of wells (surface, subsea), environmental
conditions (waves, wind, current), topsides equipment (weight, size), construction strategy & constraints (yard availability, …) &
Costs.
Offshore structures are used worldwide for a variety of functions and in a variety of water depths and environments, oil and gas
actual fields are developing using: 85% Fixed Platforms (Steel and Concrete), less than 10% Floating Platforms and the rest
Surface and/or subsea wells, increasing rapidly. This based on comprehensive studies necessaries to select the most appropriate
and cost effective field architecture.
Global Market Context & Forecast
Oil & gas companies expect offshore spend to increase in the next years, mainly in deepwater due to new reserves has found
after investment in exploration and development because many countries in last years has past peak of production and also due to
the low disinvestment during 1983-2003 period. Since 2003, global oilfield market has been undergoing a period of heavy
investment both onshore and offshore, and it seems to follow the same trend up (Figure 2).
Continued demand for oil and gas creates a necessity to drill for new wells and to work over existing wellstocks to maintain
and/or boost production. Average productivity per existing well is declining, and increasing efforts are required to deliver each
barrel of oil to the surface.
SPE 132289 3

During the period 2007-2012 global production forecast growth 20% in shallow water and between 20% to 99% deepwater
growth. Spend 32% and 74% growth in shallow water and deepwater respectably.
Important to highlight is variations on CAPEX and OPEX relating to operational oilfields, that has undergone an increase of up
to 50% since 2003 until nowadays (Figure 3). And it is expected to increase a minimum of 15% in the medium term (next 5 years).
Increasing is due to many reasons, including: growing maintenance, major modifications, technical complexity and logistic.
Market Drivers
Oil prices
Oil prices have increased rapidly in recent years. Unlike previous oil price “spikes” caused by geopolitical tension or
temporary supply disruption.

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Two decades of low oil prices have resulted in underinvestment (year 1880 until 1970); recently years companies have had
investing due energy demand have increased with global growth in population and the necessity to drill for new wells and to work
over existing.
Massive investment required bringing new fields online and compensating for years of underinvestment. Now oil & gas
industry (onshore & offshore) needs to spend $10 trillion by 2030 to balance demand and declining productivity of existing wells
creating opportunities to deploy new technology (Figure 4).
Demand & Supply
Energy demand looks set to increase with global population growth and wealth, developing world is getting richer, faster – 7%
GDP growth to 2009 forecast vs 3% for developed world. Energy demand is relatively unresponsive to changes in price,
particularly for liquid fuels such as oil.
For example, China: ”giant dragon awakens”: There are some aspect that put China as one of the main drivers of global energy
demand jointed with India: Export rose 28,1% until May 2008 and Import grew 26,4%, 2000-2006: coal use up 78%, Car sale
forecast to grow at 8% p.a, China energy demand growth from 1990-2007: 427% double in past five years,  2000-2007: coal
demand up 84% and consumes 39% of the worl’s coal, Chinese oil consumption is around 7 mb/d, but by 2030 Chinese oil
demand is expected to exceed the current level of US oil demand & GDP grew at a mere 9.7% in Q3.
The market expects that there will not be enough oil available in the future if prices are anywhere significantly below current
levels. The price level that is needed to bring supply and demand into balance will continue to change and could drop if enough
supply comes online in the future.
Of course, the world will eventually run out of oil since oil is not a renewable resource. However, for right now it appears that
only the most low cost oil reserves have been exploited and that most of these low cost reserves are as a result beginning to
decline. There are many areas worldwide that can still be drilled or mined to produce more oil.
The reason oil prices volatility is not because there isn’t enough oil to satisfy demand right now but because the market expects
that significantly more supply is going to be needed in the future to make up for new demand coming online from the developing
world. These new oil supplies cannot be economically produced without significantly higher oil prices to make production
economical and higher oil prices are also needed for consumers to cut back on their own consumption of oil. Another important
factor is that the production in many oil-exporting nations has been in decline due to under investment in new drilling and
infrastructure by state run oil companies.
Geopolitical
International geopolitics traditionally play an important role in the energy markets especially in the Middle East and North
Africa region, with historic event such as Yom Kippur and Iraq/Iran wars of 1973 and 1980, respectively, having huge impact on
global oil supply and price as well as raising international concerns. More recently, similar concerns have arisen over the invasion
of Iraq.
Another important factor in the socio-political situation in producing countries like Venezuela and Nigeria, coupled with the
situation between Russia (holds 16% of the world's gas reserves) and Ukraine concerning gas supply of West Europe.
Fixed Platforms Market
Fixed platform installation units have historically been the first method employed in the production of offshore oil and gas
fields across the world. This work is focused on evaluating the actual market for the fixed platforms and also for the next five year,
relative to the last years.
It was very difficult to found the total amount of the offshore platforms in the world, but at least from The Infield Offshore
Energy Database*, identifies 14,000 fixed platforms from the massive gravity based platforms down to 15 tonne caissons only in
the Gulf of Mexico.
Refer to Infield Energy Analysts which published the report about the worldwide fixed platform market (“Global Perspective
Fixed Platform Market Update 2008”), Capex spend over the next five years for the fixed platform market is expected to be $60bn.
This is an increase of over 30% over the previous five years. In terms of numbers of platform units, globally the increase is only
8%, however this masks some of the dramatic increase in activity in Africa and Asia. In these two regions alone the increase is
expected a staggering 245 units or 60% over the previous five years.
4 SPE 132289

In numerical terms the fixed platforms market is expected to grow globally, albeit with regional variations. Globally the
number of fixed facilities is expected to grow from one thousand five hundred and fourteen units in the 2003-2007 period to a
higher one thousand six hundred and thirty-one unit installations in the five-year period ahead (Tables 1 and 2).
However, the tables are also illustrative of the variations in the regional markets. On inspection of the installation numbers in
these regions across the two periods of this report’s focus, we are expecting to see the highest change in units in Asia, with an
additional one hundred and thirty-one units compared with the previous five-year period, the largest percentage growth is forecast
for the Australasian region of one hundred and seventy-eight per cent growth over the two five-year periods. The only region
forecast to see decline is North America, with a thirty-one per cent decline in terms of unit numbers. The equates to two hundred
and fourteen less fixed platforms forecast compared with the previous five-year period.

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Unmanned Offshore Fixed Platform.
SCADA For Automation
Automation technology commonly used in all types of industry, there are several types of automation technology such as
Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) applied for simple control function or robust control mechanism, Distributed Control
System (DCS) applied for complex algorithm control function and Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) applied
for controlling & monitoring remote area from certain place, these package control unit always used in order to keep the process
systems running well.
Almost all plant that has very complex algorithm control apply at least PLC & DCS, some application which need remote
controlling from another place will use SCADA. For example at pipeline network, there are SCADA application to do monitoring
and controlling in some critical point such as metering equipment, line break control valve etc.
A SCADA System usually consists of the following subsystems: a Human-Machine Interface or HMI is the apparatus which
presents process data to a human operator, and through this, the human operator, monitors and controls the process, a supervisory
(computer) system, gathering (acquiring) data on the process and sending commands (control) to the process, Remote Terminal
Units (RTUs) connecting to sensors in the process, converting sensor signals to digital data and sending digital data to the
supervisory system, Programmable Logic Controller (PLCs) used as field devices because they are more economical, versatile,
flexible, and configurable than special-purpose RTUs and telecommunication infrastructure connecting the supervisory system to
the Remote Terminal Units.
Systems concepts
The term SCADA usually refers to centralized systems which monitor and control entire sites, or complexes of systems spread
out over large areas (anything between an industrial plant and a country). Most control actions are performed automatically by
remote terminal units ("RTUs") or by programmable logic controllers ("PLCs"). Host control functions are usually restricted to
basic overriding or supervisory level intervention. For example, a PLC may control the flow of cooling water through part of an
industrial process, but the SCADA system may allow operators to change the set points for the flow, and enable alarm conditions,
such as loss of flow and high temperature, to be displayed and recorded. The feedback control loop passes through the RTU or
PLC, while the SCADA system monitors the overall performance of the loop (see Figure 5).
Data acquisition begins at the RTU or PLC level and includes meter readings and equipment status reports that are
communicated to SCADA as required. Data is then compiled and formatted in such a way that a control room operator using the
HMI can make supervisory decisions to adjust or override normal RTU (PLC) controls. Data may also be fed to a Historian, often
built on a commodity Database Management System, to allow trending and other analytical auditing.
Human Machine Interface
A Human-Machine Interface or HMI is the apparatus which presents process data to a human operator, and through which the
human operator controls the process. An HMI is usually linked to the SCADA system's databases and software programs, to
provide trending, diagnostic data, and management information such as scheduled maintenance procedures, logistic information,
detailed schematics for a particular sensor or machine, and expert-system troubleshooting guides.
The HMI system usually presents the information to the operating personnel graphically, in the form of a mimic diagram. This
means that the operator can see a schematic representation of the plant being controlled. For example, a picture of a pump
connected to a pipe can show the operator that the pump is running and how much fluid it is pumping through the pipe at the
moment. The operator can then switch the pump off. The HMI software will show the flow rate of the fluid in the pipe decrease in
real time. Mimic diagrams may consist of line graphics and schematic symbols to represent process elements, or may consist of
digital photographs of the process equipment overlain with animated symbols.
Remote Terminal Unit (RTU)
The RTU connects to physical equipment. Typically, an RTU converts the electrical signals from the equipment to digital
values such as the open/closed status from a switch or a valve, or measurements such as pressure, flow, voltage or current. By
converting and sending these electrical signals out to equipment the RTU can control equipment, such as opening or closing a
switch or a valve, or setting the speed of a pump.
SPE 132289 5

Supervisory Station
The term "Supervisory Station" refers to the servers and software responsible for communicating with the field equipment
(RTUs, PLCs, etc), and then to the HMI software running on workstations in the control room, or elsewhere. In smaller SCADA
systems, the master station may be composed of a single PC. In larger SCADA systems, the master station may include multiple
servers, distributed software applications, and disaster recovery sites. To increase the integrity of the system the multiple servers
will often be configured in a dual-redundant or hot-standby formation providing continuous control and monitoring in the event of
a server failure.
Operational philosophy
For some installations, the costs that would result from the control system failing are extremely high. Possibly even lives could

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be lost. Hardware for some SCADA systems is ruggedized to withstand temperature, vibration, and voltage extremes, but in most
critical installations reliability is enhanced by having redundant hardware and communications channels, up to the point of having
multiple fully equipped control centres. A failing part can be quickly identified and its functionality automatically taken over by
backup hardware. A failed part can often be replaced without interrupting the process. The reliability of such systems can be
calculated statistically and is stated as the mean time to failure, which is a variant of mean time between failures. The calculated
mean time to failure of such high reliability systems can be on the order of centuries.
Platform Operated by Remote Automation Kit
Fixed offshore platforms have the most probability to become unmanned operation using remote automation kit, but we still
have to consider some factors related to this application of remote automation technology. There are some exsisting and future
design unmanned platforms in the world as mention below :
Normally Unmanned Installation (NUI)
There are some proven unmanned design have been applied in offshore fields, commonly called Normally Unmanned
Installation (NUI). A NUI is a type of offshore facility that is designed to be operated remotely without the constant presence of
personnel. They are characterized by their small size, often consisting of just a well bay with a helipad on top. They are often a
compromise of providing the convenience of surface wellheads, which are easier to build and maintain, while avoiding the high
operating costs of a full production platform.
They are generally only used in shallower water, where constructing many small NUIs is a relatively easy and cheap option as
compared to the cost of using subsea wells. This can be seen in the Southern North Sea where large numbers of wells are on
smaller NUIs, compared with the more northern areas of the continental shelf where fewer larger platforms and subsea sites are the
norm.
NUIs are commonly serviced from a nearby larger platform, eg, Mungo serviced from Marnock. These installations will
include an emergency shelter with essential food and water in order to provide a safe refuge in the event that weather or other
considerations prevent a visiting crew from returning to base. Regular visits may be made for routine maintenance and for smaller
well work such as wireline operations. Anything larger requires a drilling rig to be brought in, but this is still an advantage over
subsea wells, which require a drilling rig or light intervention vessel for any well intervention.
In recent times NUI has become a phase within the decommissioning of previously manned offshore installations. Platforms
would generally be positively isolated from hydrocarbons and flushed clean to suit environmental issues. Platforms would then
only be visited infrequently for integrity checks and maintenance of temporary equipment left for power requirements and safety
functionality. The platform would then remain in this phase until further decommissioning activities are carried out to remove the
topsides in modules or piece small, and then remove the jacket.
Some examples for NUIs application : Golden Eye Gas Platform, North Sea Northern and Viking B Complex, North Sea
Southern, United Kingdom.
Robotics Operated for Oil & Gas Platforms
The Norwegian oil and gas company StatoilHydro has developed a new concept for a remotely operated oil & gas platform
located offshore. The goal is to develop this platform within 2015. In order to support research on robotic and instrumentation
systems for this platform concept, StatoilHydro has cooperated with SINTEF and financed a robotic lab facility in Trondheim.
A remotely operated platform must be equipped with intelligent and reliable robotic and instrumentation systems that enable
operators located onshore to monitor and control all processes taking place on the platform.
The idea behind the platform concept is to install large modular process sections in a completely unmanned area of the
platform. There will be open corridors between each rack of process equipment in order to allow access by one or more robotic
manipulators. These manipulators are positioned by a large gantry crane that moves above all the process sections as seen in the
illustration below. The illustration also shows two smaller manipulators attached to the base of the main manipulator. These are
meant for carrying video cameras and lights, thereby giving operators on shore a satisfying view of the work area.
6 SPE 132289

The Gemini Centre has developed the lab for Advanced Robotics, where both SINTEF and NTNU participate. The initial
version of the lab facility was complete in 2006, but the lab is continuously being further developed. The robot manufacturer
KUKA has supplied the robotic system installed in the lab.
Semi Unmanned Offshore Platforms
The idea for this concept which is distinguishing from both automation technology applications as mention above are to
maximize costs reduction from OPEX as well as reduce the amount of men site effort to assure the plant operation using current
available of remote automation technology. By these reductions, it will become multiplayer effect to another costs reduction such
as board & lodging, meal, mobilization etc.
These kinds of automation technology are not new application in oil & gas industry, especially in offshore platform. Most

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probably all platform in the world had been applying automation technology to assure the plant operation controlled well, despite
they still put all site personnel represent full site time requirement. PLC & DCS were the common automation kit used, also
SCADA, several platform using SCADA in order to establish remote monitoring from onshore or from main base of platform
complex as well as management report requirement.
But it was very rare for oil & gas companies, which operate offshore platforms, set up their platforms with ‘fully’ remote
operated, not only for management report requirement but also for plant process controlling.
The main reason is we don’t want to get bother and loss production because of the failure from this remote technology when it
happened. In the other side, when the oil & gas market become extremely volatile, the voatility price & OPEX incremental erroded
profits. Then we start to think other best solution to keep the profit, either one of the effort by try to see some capabilities from
current available of remote automation technology in order to reduce costs.
Figure 6 show the control system configuration, represent the interconnection from field instrument & equipment package to
onshore control room. All equipment & system on platform directly controlled by DCS & PLC packages, for example by using
fiber optic cable as well as telecommunication network will transmit certain information & data from DCS & PLC packages to
SCADA unit at onshore (Figure 7), SCADA will retrieve & refresh all data as real time status. By this configuration, onshore
operator through SCADA console could monitor, override control either or diagnostic to certain setting and parameter in the
platform processing & utilities system.
Almost all fixed platforms with its complexites can be operated remotely depend on its distance from onshore. Because the
distance will determine the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) in term of fiber optic installation as a telecommunication network. And
what is more the complexities will determine the amount of men site reduction.
For the top side equipments itself as some vendor voice, there are no doubt to controlling remotely because the remote
automation technology was proven.
The most critical equipments in platform are rotating equipment such as turbogenerator and turbocompressor, both of them like
a heart for platform. This kind of equipment need very robust & dedicated control unit. These equipments always equiped by PLC
packages as an independent integrated control for them to keep running well. For the rest of equipments which categorized as
static equipment / device will controlled directly by DCS.
There are several interconnection between PLC packages & DCS. For example Turbocompressor package, Turbogenerator
package, Fire & Gas System, Emergency Shutdown System etc will connected to DCS as the main control unit. It mean that
overall processing plant will controlled by DCS.
In order to develop the remote automation for complex top side equipment, we need large capacity (bandwidth) of
telecomunication network and also robust reliability. The network which comply to the request is fiber optic.

Automation Kit Application

Case Study for Semi Unmanned Offshore Platform Application
Fixed Offshore Platform AKAL-GC is either one of plenty production platforms operated by Pemex (national oil & gas
company from Mexico) in The Gulf of Mexico which deliver compressed gas with capacity 95 MMSCFD. This platform have so
many system to be operated and maintain, there are 45 systems, but its devided into some cargo systems (see Tabel 3 & Tabel 4).
Figure 8 shown lay out The Offshore Fixed Platform AKAL-GC, the distance of this platform from onshore site is 100 km.
The top side equipment in this platform are somewhat complex, there are several main unit like gas compressor package,
turbogenerator, separation unit, utilities etc.
All equipment and systems connected to DCS and neither are PLCs from some equipment packages. DCS act as central control
placed in control room which operate all function of equipment and system at platform.
This platform has SCADA system to perform telecommunication among several platforms laying in the area near from AKAL-
GC. And even in these platforms complex has SCADA systems, there is no real time connection to onshore site.
In this case we will try to analyze feasibility of installation the remote control automation from onshore site directly to platform
AKAL-GC.
SPE 132289 7

As mention above this platform has complete control system unit (PLC, DCS & SCADA), but in this case SCADA system are
not used as a full set package tool (monitoring, controlling & diagnosing unit). This SCADA used only as a monitoring unit by
delivering status & parameter to other certain place (main platform).
Assuming this technology ensures a reliable platform operation from onshore control room, this would enable the company to
reorganize some charges because the paperwork and technical decision making now can be taken onshore; therefore for this case is
considered transfer of the operator and maintenance engineers, the chief control room and the operator of compressor and
treatment module to new facilities onshore.
With this arrangement the performing operations work on offshore platform can be given with a reduction of 24 operations &
maintenance people, 11 of them are moving to onshore control room and the other 13 could be transferred to other projects (see
Table 5). Therefore the costs that involve offshore activities are reduced for the 24 in terms of meal, transport and accommodation

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and for 13 of them also salaries.
In the case of maintenance manpower, can be reduced predictive maintenance due to ability to regard rotating equipment data
to onshore, optimizing logistic costs and also improving reliability.
In order to calculate the economical feasibility is necessary to know the total investment and the result of revenue.
Development remote control automation system from onshore site to platform AKAL-GC need new telecommunication
network, fiber optic cable and reconfiguration for the new SCADA unit dedicated to this purpose. By assumption the market price
for : Fiber optic cable complete with subsea installation cost : US$. 13.36 million for 100 km, SCADA unit complete with
reconfiguration and installation cost : US$. 2 million. Total cost of Capital Expenditure is US$. 15.36 million.
The production cost for the AKAL-GC platform are generally not available in public database; however it can be derived from
survey instruments or extracted from company records. In this case is used both, company records and a study which infer
production cost based on an assessment of the economic limit of structures removed from service. In the table 6 is shown the
specific operation cost for the AKAL-GC platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
The table 6 shows the value of cash flow inlet obtained from reduction in operating costs like manpower (salaries), meal,
transportation and accommodation and also preventive maintenance reduction (US$. 275,000/year) according to the above
analysis, in order to calculate the economic feasibility is taking 5% inflation annual rate, 12% discount annual rate and duration
time project of 8 years, the following results are obtained:
 Net Present Value (NPV) : 10.52 Million US$
 Pay Out Time (POT) : 4.21 years
 Internal Rate of Return (IRR) : 29.41 %
 Profitability Index (PI) : 1.69
The economic calculations shows a reasonable project for platforms within 8 years of remaining operation life and less than
100 km distance offshore due to the cost of fibber optic.
Current Project Application
An installation of this kind recently completed by Siemens was at Phillips Petroleum's West Ekofisk platform in Norway,
which was converted from a manned to an unmanned platform. The reduction in operating costs achieved through the adoption of
remote control technology meant that the working life of the platform was significantly extended.
Conversely for full remote control, a fully equipped instrumentation system including telecommunications interface function is
required - this standard telecoms interface is based on radio links or fiber optic cables without restricting system operation. This
system requires a local VDU based operator station and control unit for process/utility control, MCC/ switchboard, emergency
shutdown, fire and gas.
An installation recently completed for Phillips Petroleum's Embla platform was a purpose-built unmanned remote controlled
wellhead platform (15 well slots). The control system developed was an extremely compact solution, with all necessary functions,
including process control, ESD, HVAC, fire and gas, integrated into four controllers.
The implementations of both types of system have brought their own set of challenges for remote control system developers
and operators. Typically, suppliers have been faced with two major concerns from offshore oil companies - interfacing and
reliability.
Pros & Cons Project Application
Advantages
This remote automation application to monitoring and control units and equipment of fixed platforms from onshore, could
reduce men sites & increase safety of operation as well as reduce mobilization from onshore to offshore. Improving maintenance
efficiency, reducing time and cost, by accurate prediction from online monitoring at onshore base.
8 SPE 132289

Based on financial calculation of this paper, economical impact on operation cost and investment are positive. So, the
automation kit implementation reduce significantly operation cost and produce excellent return of investment, but is important
taking into account, it still need deep analysis of each case.
Disadvantages
There are some resistance from operators and managers, they says: “we can not be confident of a technology to operate
equipments without people around”.
The social impact for NOC is strongly adverse, because it means they have to change people by intelligent units which are
capable to make calibrations, test and control on processes automatically.

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Conclusion
Market Analysis shows great and increasing opportunities due to CAPEX and OPEX relating to operational oilfields, that has
undergone an increase up to 50% since 2003 until nowadays. And it is expected to increase a minimum of 15% in the medium
term (next 5 years). Increasing is due to many reasons, including: growing maintenance, major modifications, technical complexity
and logistic. The CAPEX spend over the next five years for the fixed platform market is expected to be $60bn.
Offshore structures are used worldwide for a variety of functions and in a variety of water depths and environments, oil and gas
actual fields are developing using: 85% Fixed Platforms (Steel and Concrete), less than 10% Floating Platforms and the rest
Surface and/or subsea wells, all of them still increasing rapidly.
In the extreme volatile oil & gas market, all operators are focusing on cost reduction to maximize the profits. These facts become
great opportunities to invest in automation kit application at fixed platform for reduce operating expenditures.
Semi unmanned offshore platform is the main idea for cost solution at present time instead applying full remote control which is
still under development. Case study of Offshore Platform AKAL GC at Mexico shows us a great economic indicator by applying
remote automation system for fixed platforms with avalaible technology.
There are some pros & cons related to this application.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank to Filippo Cinelli as our tutor from GE Oil & Gas for his assistance and GE Oil & Gas University to this
paper when we had to present it on Graduation Day a year ago.

References
Cancellieri, G. and Maric, I. 2005. Economical Evaluation of the Technologies Suitable for the TransAdriatic Connection. TAC-
LINE Project
Compression Platform AKAL GC Operational Data Base. 2008. PEMEX Exploration and Production. Mexico
Global Perspective Fixed Platform Market Update. 2008. Infield Energy Analysts.
Offshore Platform. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_platform
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCADA
Robotics Rules The World. http://robotics2u.blogspot.com/2008/06/robotics-for-oil-gas-platforms.html
US Energy Information Administration. www.eia.gov/oil_gas/natural_gas/data_publications/ cost_indices/c_ihtml
SPG Media Limited, a subsidiary of SPG Media Group PLC. www.offshore-technology.com
Science Direct; www.sciencedirect.com
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Figures

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Figure 1. All Types of offshore oil & gas production platforms

Figure 2. Offshore CAPEX & OPEX spend by regions 2003-2012

Figure 3. Offshore CAPEX & OPEX in field oil operations

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Figure 4. Oilfield Investment 1971-2008

Figure 5. Typical SCADA configuration

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Figure 6. Remote Automation Control Configuration

Figure 7. Remote Automation Control Layout

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Figure 8. Fiber Optic Layout from AKAL-GC to Onshore Site

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Tables

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Tabel 1. Global Fixed Platform Units (Nos.) by Region 2008 - 2012

Tabel 2. Global Fixed Platform Units (Nos.) by Region 2003 - 2007

NO CATEGORY CARGO SYSTEM MEN SITE

1 OPERATION ENGINEER COORDINATE THE OPERATION OF THE FACILITY 2
CHIEF "B COORDINATE, ADJUST THE OPERATING CONDITIONS. 4
2 DCS, ESD, FIER & GAS SYSTEM
3 CHIEF "A" COMPRESSORS PLANT COMPRESSION MODULES 4
CHIEF "A" TREATMENT PLANT DEHYDRATION SYSTEM, WATER TREATMENT 4
4 SYSTEM
OPERATORS OF POWER PLANTS TURBOGENERATORS, EMERGENCY POWER 4
5 GENERATOR FOR DIESEL, LINK ELECTRIC
6 OPERATORS 1ª COMPRESSORS PLANT AREA OF SEPARATORS, AIR COMP 4
OPERATORS 1ª TREATMENT PLANT 4
CONDITIONING PACKAGE OF FUEL GAS, CONDENSER
7 PUMPS HIGH AND LOW PRESSURE, PUMPS FIGHTING
8 HELPERS GENERAL HELPERS GENERAL 4
TOTAL PERSONS 30

Table 3. Total Men Site effort for Operation Production in AKAL-GC Platform
14 SPE 132289

NO CATEGORY CARGO SYSTEM MEN SITE

1 MAINTENANCE ENGINEER 2
2 MECHANICALS SPECIALIST OPERATORS 2
3 HELPERS MECHANICALS 2
4 ELECTRICALS SPECIALIST OPERATORS 2
5 HELPERS ELECTRICALS COMPRESSION SYSTEMS MAINTENANCE 2
6 INSTRUMENTS SPECIALIST OPERATORS 2
7 HELPERS INSTRUMENTS 2
8 ELECTRONICS SPECIALIST OPERATORS 2
9 HELPERS ELECTRONICS 2
10 ELECTRICAL SUPERVISOR 2
MAINTENANCE ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS AND
11 ELECTRICALS SPECIALIST OPERATORS 2
EQUIPMENT

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12 HELPERS ELECTRICALS 2
13 ELECTRICAL SUPERVISOR 2
14 ELECTRICALS SPECIALIST OPERATORS MAINTENANCE FIRE SYSTEMS AND 2
15 ELECTRONICS SPECIALIST OPERATORS RESCUE 2
16 MECHANICALS SPECIALIST OPERATORS 2
TOTAL PERSONS 32

Table 4. Total Men Site effort for Maintenance Team in AKAL-GC Platform

MEN SITE
WORKING EXISTING UPGRADING
NO JOB TITLE
HOUR On Job
On Job Take Rest Take Rest
Offshore Onshore
Operation Jobs
1 Operator Engineer 07.00 - 19.00 1 1 1
2 Chief Control Room 00.01 - 12.00 1 1 1 1
12.01 - 24.00 1 1 1
3 Operator CR for Comp. Module 00.01 - 12.00 1 1 1 1
12.01 - 24.00 1 1 1
4 Operator CR for Treat. Module 00.01 - 12.00 1 1 1 1
12.01 - 24.00 1 1 1
5 Field Operators 00.01 - 12.00 3 3 2 2
12.01 - 24.00 3 3 2 2
6 Helper 00.01 - 12.00 1 1 0 0
12.01 - 24.00 1 1 0 0
Total I 15 15 4 7 7
30 18

Maintenance Jobs
1 Maintenance Engineer 07.00 - 19.00 1 1 1
Total II 1 1 0 1 0
2 1

Table 5. Total Men Site Reduction in AKAL-GC Platform

MENSITE COSTS (US$) / YEAR

NO OPEX COMPONENT EXISTING UPGRADING REDUCTION
Nos. Cost (US$) Nos. Cost (US$) Nos. Cost (US$)
1 Manpower 62 5.952.000 49 4.704.000 13 1.248.000
2 Meal 62 2.263.000 38 1.387.000 24 876.000
3 Transport 62 1.889.998 38 1.158.386 24 731.612
4 Lodging 62 3.394.500 38 2.080.500 24 1.314.000
13.499.498 9.329.886 4.169.612

Table 6. Total reduction of operation cost for the AKAL-GC platform