Statoil to open integrated operations center

Statoil plans to establish next year a new onshore integrated operations center (IOC) that will help increase safety, add value and reduce emissions from its the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) fields.

By establishing the IOC, Statoil aims over the next decade to boost production from its operated fields, possibly adding total annual value of around NOK 10 billion before tax, Statoil reported on 28 November.

The location of the new IOC will be decided next year. It will integrate Statoil’s existing production support centers and condition monitoring centers located across Norway.  “When the center is established next year the Åsgard field in the Norwegian Sea and Grane and Gina Krog in the North Sea will be the first fields getting support from the center. New fields and installations will gradually be integrated, allowing time for learning and adjustment to new work processes,” says Kjetil Hove, Statoil’s senior vice president for operations technology on the NCS.   

One important goal of the IOC is the identify and prevent operational disruptions, says Hove. The IOC will help ensure that production on the fields is optimally efficient through condition monitoring. This will be achieved by means of specialist support within production optimization and preventive maintenance from inter-disciplinary teams, which will include workers with experience in production technology, processing, mechanical and electrical engineering.

"The IOC will take a more proactive approach by gathering inter-disciplinary resources that may utilize extended data integration, visualization, analysis and new technology, supporting our installations on the NCS to an even greater extent than now," Hove adds. The IOC is also intended to make data available in a more user-friendly format, providing the operations organization offshore with a better decision-making basis and support.

To meet this goal, Statoil also is developing tools that will stream data live from the sensors offshore. The tools will help conduct detailed analyses of the production and the performance of equipment on the installations.