OTC ’15: Offshore data capacity and management to emerge as key technology

HOUSTON -- The management of data will emerge as a key component in the future as offshore drilling moves ahead, and must find solutions to the vast amount of it being processed, an industry leader said at an opening session of the 2015 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas.

In the breakfast session, “Emerging Offshore Technology Trends: More Value from Technology and Faster Cycle Times,” James Dupree, COO of Reservoir Technology at BP, noted that the traditional model of data interaction in the offshore industry is rapidly shifting.

“The pace, breadth and scale of data are changing … Going forward, we are going to need much more collaboration [with the management of data],” Dupree said.

Offshore data needs going forward will be enormous, Dupree said to the morning session.

In the subsea market, there will be more facilities—such as pumps, vessels, boosters and hydrate management systems—that send data to the rig, thus the need for more powerful transmission capabilities will be heightened. Longer tie-backs, with wireless capabilities, will emerge, as will Wi-Fi that “talks” with the BOP, Dupree stated.

“Can we get rid of tethering? We see a lot of changes going forward. Moving data quicker changes work-flow, and how we interpret that.”

In the seismic industry, technology from outside the industry—such as military and Norwegian fishing—has been incorporated, and will continue to be further developed by the offshore energy market.

“We have to prepare for the onslaught of data; we’re not experts with that, so [the offshore industry] should look to Silicon Valley. With so much data flowing, we have to put the right data with the right person at the right time.”

Dupree said that the industry can source ideas from several fields: academia, medical, telecommunications, aviation, automotive, bio-engineering, and social media.

“In the future, we’re going to be a lot more collaborative.”