5 ms·

Slightly tangential, but: > Chevron alone has thousands of oil wells around the world, and each well is covered with sensors that generate more than a terabyte

Slightly tangential, but: > Chevron alone has thousands of oil wells around the world, and each well is covered with sensors that generate more than a terabyte of data per day. That's around 12MB/s, which sounds extremely high for something as "boring" (for lack of a better word) as an oil well. What could they possibly be monitoring, and at what frequency, and most importantly: for what purpose?

SuoDuanDao 7y ago
I would guess it's part of some kind of early-warning system. The pressure and density of fluids in a well is extremely variable moment to moment, and knowing when a well is about to 'kick' makes it possible to prevent an awful lot of problems.
onion2k 7y ago
If you think of an oil rig[1] it's not hard to imagine it having a lot of sensors monitoring the state of the equipment needed to pump oil out of the well. The wells on land aren't as complicated because they don't need crew quarters or things to keep them afloat, but the oil drilling equipment is basically the same. [1] Eg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Oil_platform_P-51_%28Brazil%29.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Oil_plat...
- ckastner 7y ago
  Yes, it's easy to imagine for an oil rig, which is huge structure with lots of activity on it, and all of it running in a highly dynamic environment. I'm having trouble imagining it for an oil well [2]. In contrast to an oil rig, a field of pumpjacks looks downright boring. What could they be measuring beyond temperature, pressure, and oil flow (which, even at millisecond rates, wouldn't amount to 12MB/s for 1,000 sensors)? [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well
  - omegabravo 7y ago
    down hole, surface, annulus, multiple legs, pump speed, pump current, pump vibrations, liquid volume, separator pressure, separator water, separator oil, separator gas, valve positions, tank levels, tank temperatures, tank pumps etc..
wwwigham 7y ago
Monitoring 11000 wells (in the US alone, according to Wikipedia) at that rate is only roughly 1KB/s per well. I'm actually surprised it's so small. Sampling intervals for most sensors must be on the order of multiple seconds - or there's not many sensors.
- iguy 7y ago
  Isn't a single CCTV camera going to give you MB/s? To be honest I'm astonished that there are oil wells without video cameras. Or perhaps those are counted elsewhere.
- sanxiyn 7y ago
  Note that wells are kilometers deep and well measurements are usually done every meter, so 1000 datapoints for every measurement, say, temperature, pressure, density, etc.
GordonS 7y ago
I work in the Oil & Gas sector, and have been involved with subsea well monitoring in the past. Keep in mind that an oil well is a lot more than just a hole and a drill bit - there is a lot of equipment sitting on the seabed[0], and a wellhead and a lot of equipment "topside" too There are a lot of components with a lot of sensors, including vibration (you want high frequency for that), position, flow measurement, pressure, temperature, seismic, sand detectors, water sensors, gas detectors, bearing sensors... Rigs/platforms typically have restricted bandwidth, and it's very expensive to add more. The amount of data generated has always been a problem, and in some projects we've actually logged to disk, and had techs ferry the disks back and forth with them as they rotate in/out. [0] https://www.akersolutions.com/globalassets/products_1920x1080/subsea_production_system_mohonord_01_1920x1080.jpg?width=1200&quality=60 https://www.akersolutions.com/globalassets/products_1920x108...

SuoDuanDao 7y ago

I would guess it's part of some kind of early-warning system. The pressure and density of fluids in a well is extremely variable moment to moment, and knowing when a well is about to 'kick' makes it possible to prevent an awful lot of problems.

onion2k 7y ago

If you think of an oil rig[1] it's not hard to imagine it having a lot of sensors monitoring the state of the equipment needed to pump oil out of the well. The wells on land aren't as complicated because they don't need crew quarters or things to keep them afloat, but the oil drilling equipment is basically the same. [1] Eg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Oil_platform_P-51_%28Brazil%29.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Oil_plat...

ckastner 7y ago
Yes, it's easy to imagine for an oil rig, which is huge structure with lots of activity on it, and all of it running in a highly dynamic environment. I'm having trouble imagining it for an oil well [2]. In contrast to an oil rig, a field of pumpjacks looks downright boring. What could they be measuring beyond temperature, pressure, and oil flow (which, even at millisecond rates, wouldn't amount to 12MB/s for 1,000 sensors)? [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_well
- omegabravo 7y ago
  down hole, surface, annulus, multiple legs, pump speed, pump current, pump vibrations, liquid volume, separator pressure, separator water, separator oil, separator gas, valve positions, tank levels, tank temperatures, tank pumps etc..

wwwigham 7y ago

Monitoring 11000 wells (in the US alone, according to Wikipedia) at that rate is only roughly 1KB/s per well. I'm actually surprised it's so small. Sampling intervals for most sensors must be on the order of multiple seconds - or there's not many sensors.

iguy 7y ago
Isn't a single CCTV camera going to give you MB/s? To be honest I'm astonished that there are oil wells without video cameras. Or perhaps those are counted elsewhere.
sanxiyn 7y ago
Note that wells are kilometers deep and well measurements are usually done every meter, so 1000 datapoints for every measurement, say, temperature, pressure, density, etc.

GordonS 7y ago

I work in the Oil & Gas sector, and have been involved with subsea well monitoring in the past. Keep in mind that an oil well is a lot more than just a hole and a drill bit - there is a lot of equipment sitting on the seabed[0], and a wellhead and a lot of equipment "topside" too There are a lot of components with a lot of sensors, including vibration (you want high frequency for that), position, flow measurement, pressure, temperature, seismic, sand detectors, water sensors, gas detectors, bearing sensors... Rigs/platforms typically have restricted bandwidth, and it's very expensive to add more. The amount of data generated has always been a problem, and in some projects we've actually logged to disk, and had techs ferry the disks back and forth with them as they rotate in/out. [0] https://www.akersolutions.com/globalassets/products_1920x1080/subsea_production_system_mohonord_01_1920x1080.jpg?width=1200&quality=60 https://www.akersolutions.com/globalassets/products_1920x108...