Remote Operations for Upstream Oil & Gas

NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), a robotic space probe mission to Mars, on November 26, 2011.  This mission successfully landed the Curiosity Mars rover in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.  The overall objectives include investigating the planet’s habitability, studying its climate and geology, and collecting data for a future manned mission to Mars.

The rover carried out the most accurate Martian landing of any known spacecraft.  It hit a small target landing ellipse of only 7 by 20 km (4.3 by 12.4 miles) in the Aeolis Palus region of Gale Crater.  MSL achieved a landing just 2.4 km (1.5 miles) east and 400 m (1,300 ft.) north of the center of the target.  Curiosity is about twice as long and five times as heavy as the two previous US Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, and carries over ten times the mass of scientific instruments.

The redundant set of on-board rover computers, called "Rover Compute Element" (RCE) have 256 KB of EEPROM, 256 MB of DRAM, and 2 GB of flash memory.  The RCE computers use the RAD750 CPU operating at 200 MHz Typically, 225 Kbit/day of commands are transmitted to the rover directly from Earth at a data rate of 1–2 Kbit/s, during a 15-minute transmit window.  The larger volumes of data collected by the rover are returned via satellite relay.  The one-way communication delay with Earth varies from 4 to 22 minutes, depending on the planet’s relative positions, with 12.5 minutes being the average.

By comparison, current industrial control technology is available with CPUs operating at over 800 MHz, with over 512 MB of DRAM, and over 4 GB of storage.  These devices can communicate at over 1 Gbits/second (Gbps), 24 hours per day with nearly no blackout periods.  For remote system access, modern satellite communications can achieve data streams of 50 Mbps.

So, here’s the question: If NASA can remotely operate the unmanned MSL on its mission to Mars, which is approximately 140 million miles away, shouldn’t the upstream industry be able to remotely operate unmanned (or minimally manned) oil and gas exploration and production assets right here on earth?

Table of Contents

• Executive Overview
• Pressure to Change the Status Quo
• Impact of Industrial IoT
• Improving Operational Excellence
• Other Enabling Technologies
• Recommendations

   

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Keywords: Industrial Control Technology, Oil & Gas Exploration, Hydrocarbon Exploration, Upstream Industry, ARC Advisory Group.