SLB announces multi-company digital collaboration to accelerate FPSO performance evolution

SLB, Rockwell Automation, Sensia LLC and Cognite on Monday announced a collaboration that will accelerate the evolution of the offshore industry’s floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) facilities.

Digital capabilities developed by the four-company coalition will improve the reliability, availability, safety and efficiency of these critical assets—all while lowering the carbon footprint of their offshore operations, SLB said.

“Global energy demand continues to increase, and every part of the value chain is evolving to improve production and reduce emissions,” said Steve Gassen, president, Production Systems, SLB. “As digital performance integrators, the power of this coalition comes from our collective knowledge, expertise, and belief that open collaboration will accelerate innovation and decarbonization. SLB will bring advanced digital solutions, subsurface domain expertise, and complex integration and project management capabilities to scale up efficiencies and lower the carbon footprint of operations across every stage of the FPSO life cycle.”

The coalition integrates the entire data life cycle with targeted automation, analytics, simulation and visualisation capabilities to enhance efficiencies in FPSO performance. This results in optimized equipment utilisation and energy consumption, improved safety, reduced risks of equipment failure and unplanned downtime, plus better-informed strategic decision making.

“As the leading OEM module automation supplier, Rockwell brings to the coalition its expertise in control and safety systems for FPSOs, as well as extensive experience in power systems,” said Frank Kulaszewicz, senior vice president, Lifecycle Services, Rockwell Automation. “We’ll be complementing the advanced digital solution portfolio of the coalition, as well as bringing network and cybersecurity capabilities to the team.”

SLB has been awarded a contract to develop and implement a control system and dynamic process simulation solution for Petrobras. This strategic multipurpose dynamic simulation (MPDS) solution is being developed in partnership with Inprocess Technology and Consulting Group, a worldwide leader in MPDS, and Sensia, the leading control system and automation specialist in oil and gas, the company said.

Yasser El-Khazindar, Chief Executive Officer of Sensia, said: “Sensia, the joint venture of SLB and Rockwell Automation, was created to specifically address the unification of sensing, intelligence, and action in oil & gas facilities, via the combination of automation, real-time control, and digital technologies. We bring to the coalition this original foundation, plus the development of specific digital applications and a complete metering solution, from the sampling & measurement skid to the control system."

According to Dr. Francois Laborie, Executive Vice President of Strategic Projects at Cognite, delivering the necessary transformation requires a combination of competencies and skills, from hardware to controls to software solutions.

“We have proven from the North Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, that we can enable true scale and the operationalisation of use cases in FPSOs with Cognite Data Fusion, delivering simple access to complex industrial data. We are proud to be a part of this coalition which demonstrates the necessity of an open and complementary approach that will give a holistic view from reservoir to topsides to accelerate FPSO’s evolution,” he said.

The MPDS solution will leverage SLB’s expertise as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and in offshore construction and operations to provide an immersive digital twin environment to dynamically simulate operational processes and their control and automation systems, train personnel, and strengthen safety elements at five new FPSO units to be installed in Búzios Field in the Santos Basin.