Digital Twin Approach Integrates Existing Facilities, Proposed Developments

Abstract

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 215074, “Digital Twin for Development and Subsurface Integration: A Window Into the Future,” by Thomas K.G. Gan, Elizabeth Sumadh, and Bhaminie Sagram, Shell. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The digital twin (DT) approach provides a virtual and digital representation of existing assets, spanning everything from onshore facilities to offshore platforms, pipelines, and subsurface data, all in one location. It has been used for the operator’s flagship Manatee project to develop three stacked reservoirs offshore Trinidad and Tobago. The DT was used to identify design modifications required at this onshore site and visualize proposed offshore assets. It integrates existing facilities and new design data, including site survey, subsurface, and well data to optimize well planning. The Manatee field lies within the East Coast Marine Area of Trinidad in approximately 92 m of water and consists of stacked reservoirs of clean and thin-bed unconsolidated sands. Production from these wells is expected to be processed through a new offshore platform and transported by the new pipeline to the Beachfield onshore facility. For a feasibility study and concept-selection stages, the DT platform played a crucial factor in visualizing and contextualizing development options and allowed front-end engineering contractors and operator teams to collaborate across multiple countries and inspect the location virtually. All engineering drawings, maps, design documents, and 3D models were powered by the DT platform. Traditionally, digital collaboration is performed through data and model export from different technical applications and results presented in slides and reporting documents. For oil and gas capital projects, typically 3–6 years elapse from feasibility stage to execution, deepening the issues caused by faulty corporate memory retention, staff movement, and project handover from different internal organizations. Manatee project teams were based in various locations in Trinidad, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and India, thereby increasing the likelihood of error by using multiple sources of data. Furthermore, effective collaboration without a single source of truth of data can be an obstacle. Given that multiple software was used for model building, development-well planning, and satellite imagery, an inability exists to view 2D and 3D imagery of onshore and offshore facilities with the subsea and subsurface in one place. Furthermore, between 2020 and 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic led to imposed restrictions and limitations placed on site visits. In such scenarios, drone images and video data can prove useful to access facilities remotely. These challenges needed to be addressed by access to a centralized platform that collected, stored, and provided virtual representations to ensure continuous monitoring and efficient decision-making.