IPTC-19588-MS

Smart Real Time Data Transfer Surveillance with Edge Computing and
Centralized Remote Monitoring System

Budhi Nugraha, Ragesh Nair, and Kashif Muhammad, Petrolink

Copyright 2020, International Petroleum Technology Conference

This paper was prepared for presentation at the International Petroleum Technology Conference held in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, 13 – 15 January 2020.

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Abstract
High-quality and completeness of real time drilling data have become critical factors to capitalize the
improvement of data analysis for decision making. This paper proposes a combined architecture that
supports edge computing technology with high frequency real time data to produce smart alerts as well
as for the remote monitoring of real time data status for large number of rigs in a centralized location to
enhance the surveillance of real time drilling data transfers.
Unlike the traditional real time data surveillance method that monitors the data in the WITSML town
server, this innovative technique analyzes the real time data quality right on the edge device. It offers
smart computation to produce rule-based intelligent alarms for effective decision-making. This method
delivers flexibility and effectiveness in WITSML real time data monitoring as it is fully independent from
direct access to the WITSML Store. The biggest advantage of this approach is that it handles the remote
surveillance of numerous rigs and gives absolute control over data aggregation.
Managing sensitive drilling data has started to play a key role in cost optimization and critical decision-
making, especially when running an active mission critical operation. The new approach of edge computing
to analyze the WITSML data from its activity file at the rig site is a breakthrough in the real time data
monitoring concept. A rule-based smart alarm system to check the statistics of real time data on the edge
increases the confidence of the decision-making process as any data transfer issue can be detected faster.
Further analysis and active monitoring of multiple rigs data transmission can be done by a centralized
control panel, accessed from the real time operations center in town. Having a system with a precise method
to actively monitor the status of real time data transfers on multiple rig sites and smartly generate alerts,
assures end users to manage their well efficiently.
Emphasizing the requirement to ensure the nature, quality and latency of real time information at rig site
will reduce the lost and non-productive time overall.

Introduction
The data transfer in previous eras was done by manually exchange the files through conventional method,
like email or USB drives, that could cause the data and the process being unsecured – and the decision
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making process usually got delay, then this was moved to real time data transmission which has become
an essential step (Khudiri, et al., 2015).
Technologies are now widely depending on accuracy and timely data information for solutions to run in
a more efficient manner. In the oil and gas industry, quality and completeness of real time data have become
critical factors to capitalize improvement in drilling, exploration, production processes etc. It is critical to
perform different data analysis, predictions and get the understanding of the situation in order to make the
right decision. Improvement in data management will also give a direct impact in the business efficiency
development if integrated workflow can be adopted to manage all the aspects of daily operations (Saghir,
Gilabert, & Boujonnier, 2018).
From the aspect of where the data is stored, real time well data transmission can be divided into two
critical storage system: 1) The local storage which is stored at the wellsite – this requires a set of processes
to convert the data types from various formats to a standard WITSML format, and 2) The central storage
available at the data hub – where it requires a full scalable high availability storage for undertaking the
comprehensive analytics of data (Djamaluddin & Mohammed, 2018).
WITSML as one of industry standards for well data transmission has been used as a standard format of
local well site data storage (Khudiri, et al., 2015). WITSML data transfer monitoring is the key for all the
contractor companies to facilitate the data exchange in oil and gas industry. Therefore, it is important to
develop a new technique to analyze real time data quality and deliver alerts in real time data over a large
fleet of rigs. This helps rig operators to mitigate the problems quickly giving them absolute control over
data aggregation.

Background
Today, many companies are driving to integrate 4IR (4th Industrial Revolution) and IoT (Internet of
Things) solutions opening up different platforms to expand the business with automations and cost-effective
solutions. The instability in the oil price makes the situation more difficult for these companies and the
customers to count on the existing product, so in order to keep the customers intact it is essential to be
upgraded with innovative methods. The volatility of the oil price means that reliance on existing products
is no longer feasible. In order to expand, companies need to embrace innovative methods.
There are huge pressures on E&P (Exploration & Production) companies to deliver well operations on
time and with budget. All operators are keen to find innovative solutions by utilizing the real time data to
improve the drilling practices and help engineers to optimize well performance to reduce downtime and
outages. As an example, the early detection of pipe stuck issues, well kick, loss circulation performing
analytical KPIs, etc. will marginally help to reduce the construction cost of well. These kinds of processes
require the running of different prediction models and algorithms against real time data emphasizing the
need for good quality of data. Many solutions fall short because data quality is lacking, it remains the core
challenge for operators of all sizes.
Our research shows the data quality issues in real time are encountered across the full range of
services companies; mudlogging, M/LWD, surface parameters, wireline etc. The causes of these issues are
often related to service companies’ sensors' fault, calibration issues, signal problems, network connection
problems, software related issues, configuration issues etc. Although these issues must be rectified at the
source, to be effective they must be spotted and resolved at the point of entry before it can tamper into the
analytical and interpretation processes.
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Figure 1—Challenges in Real Time Data Transmission

Challenges
The requirements of industries vary day to day and finding the right solution in the right place is the key
for success. With the demand for oil and gas increasing, oil companies will be eager to drill more wells to
maintain their production level in the market. All they will need is to have the right technologies and methods
that would help them to achieve their goal. Lack of innovative technology to utilize the full potential of real
time data in oil and gas industry is one of the challenges faced by operators today.
Main challenges of the data monitoring and management are explained below:

• Lack of technology to maintain high frequency data for data monitoring and for performing
analytics.
• Bandwidth issue when it comes to transfer of the data to base for further analytical solutions.

• Time synchronization issue for the data coming from multiple sources on the same rig

• Delay in data analytics due to the lack of edge analytics for making critical decisions.

• Engineer trips to remote sites for operational requirement which adds to the operational cost,
personal efficiency etc.
• Data crossover input from multiple sources for analytics and interpretation

• Additional limitations such as cost, data size, network infrastructure and availability of
computational resources (Hajizadeh, 2019).
• Potential interruption of data connectivity (VSAT connection) with town server that can impact
critical operational decisions and drilling outages

Solutions
To meet the requirements and to answer all the challenges in well site data management, then this research
proposes a combined architecture that supports edge computing technology with high frequency real time
data to produce smart alerts as well as for the remote monitoring of real time data of large number of rigs
in a centralized location to enhance the surveillance of real time drilling data transfers.

Edge Computing
Instead of relying on a centralized process in town server where the data from multiple sources and multiple
types will be sent through a complex network structure, the concept of edge computing is used to simplify the
computing process that is done at or near the source of the data (Miller, 2018). This solution is adapted with
edge computing technology as well as IoT to create a better platform for data management and analytical
solutions. It allows to analyze the WITSML data transfer issue from the WITSML activity log files at the
rig site which is a major breakthrough in real time data monitoring concept. This computing process does
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not involve a direct access to WITSML Store or a reading process of WITSML data which could impact
the performance of WITSML Store itself.
An edge application, which is running as the client, reads, computes and analyzes the data and outputs
in real time right at the edge. It will give the user an opportunity to handle high frequency data monitoring
without any concern of transferring to the town server and will enable to do real time actionable analytics
without latency problem. Rig personnel plays a major role in drilling operations as their work encompasses
overseeing the work crew and equipment, monitoring the downhole conditions of well, controlling the
surface parameters etc. to mitigate any risk factors that could lead to potential non-productive time and
to identify operational anomalies in overall rig performances. It is important to run certains Rig KPIs and
prediction models at edge to have the decisions made at the right time.

Centralized Remote Monitoring

The development of real time data transfer surveillance should not limit only to fulfill the requirements from
the rig site, but it has to be designed also to provide an efficient way to monitor multiple rig transfer and to
give flexibility for the user to monitor the rigs/wells assigned to them. In order to enhance this capability
then a remote monitoring in a centralized location is required in addition to the concept of edge computing.
This centralized remote monitoring will be visualized as a central panel where the user can access and
monitor their rigs/wells from one single panel and system.
The concept of the central panel involves client-server architecture with three components: the client (an
application running on the edge), REST service, and centralized panel (running on the town server) with a
database. REST is a standard in web architecture that uses the HTTP/HTTPS Protocol for data exchange.
REST server provides a path to access resources or data, while the REST client accesses the resource and
then displays or uses it. The resources itself are normally in the form of text with various format depends
on the requirement. This project uses JSON as the data or resources sent through REST service.
The results displayed on the central panel are achieved with the help of advanced user and filter
management access control features in the administrator model. User will be able to select their monitoring
rigs/wells and display the details of real time data transfer status being sent from multiple data sources or
data type. At the same time, a further analysis to the data transfer itself can be done at this level in a more
convenient way. Analysis to which rigs or wells with the most active data transfer, or how many percent
the active data transfer per rig/well are some of data analysis example that can be done from the centralized
remote monitoring.
IPTC-19588-MS 5

Figure 2—Architecture of Real Time Data Transfer Surveillance with Centralized Remote Monitoring

Smart Alert System

One of the main objectives of this project is how the real time data transfer surveillance can give an alarm to
the user whenever there is any data transmission issue, including to understand the behavior of the WITSML
query or data being sent from the data sources. In order to achieve this objective, it needed a custom feature
where the system can select and record some specific parameters and with the standard logical conditions
to produce an output that can immediately alert the user to take necessary actions based on the situation.
A major problem of the alert system on power systems are false positives/alert overload (Jingcheng, et al.,
1997). The system can output multiple alerts, repeated alarms, and false/uncertain alarms that can overwork
the system. This condition can cause the alarm to be easily overlooked because the trust level to the alert
will be low due to ambiguity.
To anticipate this possible problem, then rule-based alarm system is used to filter any false and duplicate
alerts automatically. This should reduce the massive number of alarms generated by the system and at the
same time to focus on the exact issue for a more efficient follow up and corrective actions.
The implementation of alert system is done at the edge itself to ensure the data is processed without any
delay and the alert will be more real time.
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Figure 3—Real Time Data Acquisition and Visualization

Figure 4—Real Time Data Surveillance with Edge Computing, Centralized Remote Monitoring and Alert System

Implementation
To improve the traditional real time data surveillance method that monitors the data in the WITSML town
server and do the visualization at the same time, this research offers a combined implementation of Edge
Computing, Centralized Remote Monitoring and Smart Alert System.
The application running on the edge takes the WITSML Activity Log File as the input instead of
connecting to the WITSML Store and take the WITSML data to be processed. It reads and parses the
parameters from different data source, like drilling data, LWD/MWD, Mudlog and others. This Activity Log
reading method has been proven efficient as the application will only read the Log files as a text-based file
IPTC-19588-MS 7

and will be more independent to any WITSML Store connection. This method also reduces the workload of
WITSML Store as in the traditional data monitoring process - it requires intensive and massive connection
to the WITSML Store.
The edge application reads and reviews the WITSML parameters from the activity log, computes and
processes the data and visualizes the output in graphical format where user can easily identify what
WITSML query is being transferred: GET, UPDATE, DELETE or ADD. This visualization is presented in
a time-based plot with different color schemes to help the user to identify if any WITSML data is being
transmitted.
Smart Alert System feature was added with rule-based system to automatically alert if there is any data
transfer issue. Any kind of issue which could lead WITSML data unavailability on the WITSML Store, like
connection issue, or no new WITSML query, will be detected and notified to the user.

Figure 5—Client Application Interface running at the Edge

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Figure 6—Alert from Central Panel Application

The Centralized Remote Monitoring was deployed by setting up the Central Panel application on the
town server with SQL database. This is an HTML5 web-based application and running at the same location
with REST service. This web interface communicates with REST Service using Standard AJAX/Https
request. The Client application running at the edge communicates with the Central Panel by sending the log
information in every 5 minutes through provided REST service (API).
The Central Panel was also equipped with Alert System and the administration page to easily maintain
and filter the alerts. Filter management allow user to create filter to control rigs display on Central Panel
and find the created filter with specific criteria and save them to specific access control groups.

Figure 7—Centralized Remote Monitoring

Conclusion and Future Work

Running active mission critical operations requires a robust solution to manage sensitive drilling data for
cost optimization and critical decision making. The implementation of new approach of edge computing
to analyze the real time WITSML data transfer at the rig site is a major leap forward in real time data
monitoring. The use of ETP (Energistics Transfer Protocol) as new data exchange protocol is having a
significant impact on the efficiency of data transmission over VSAT to reduce the latency and bandwidth
IPTC-19588-MS 9

requirements. Alongside the implementation of centralized remote monitoring and rule-based smart alarm,
further analysis and active monitoring of multiple rigs data transmission can be done faster, with greater
accuracy and in a more effective way. Operational challenges related to personnel safety from well site trips,
to cost and security have been addressed with this workflow improvement.
With the immense potential and the capability of this methodology to monitor the data transfer quality
from multiple rigs/wells, from different service companies, and various data types, then the current and
future requirement of WITSML/ETP real time data surveillance has been redefined.
The next challenges of the real time data surveillance system are how to equip it with advanced analytics
at the edge and tweak the alert system to increase the process efficiency by prioritizing and highlighting the
alerts. The implementation of AI (Artificial Intelligent) with Machine Learning model will be an additional
benefit to improve predictive functionality and quality. As we explained the current method remains focused
on identifying the data issues through realtime analysis with the incoming data but not utilizing the data
study of previous/historical data. AI technologies will trigger a paradigm shift enabling pattern recognition
which will enable interpretation of issues more rapidly, precisely and effectively to avoid additional delays
to identify the exact root cause.

Figure 8—Future of Real Time Data Integration

Acknowledgements
This research and project have been fully supported by Petrolink. Thank you to Petrolink's management, co-
authors, and all those who have involved during the project planning, development, testing and deployment
process.

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