Expanding the Limits of Wireless Field Automation

An Ask the Expert feature with OleumTech Corporation

Paul Gregory reveals how wireless field automation can improve efficiency and safety on location.

“With increasingly sophisticated processing and control capabilities, recent installations demonstrate the long distance capability and complexity of wireless automation”
-Paul Gregory, OleumTech Corporation

Improvements in wireless products are quickly changing the design of automation at oil and gas production locations. Free from the distance limitations of cable and with increasingly sophisticated processing and control capabilities, recent installations demonstrate the long distance capability and complexity of wireless automation.

OleumTech Corporation, based in Irvine, California, one of the early entrants into wireless automation, has accomplished this improved capability through its new WIO line of products. Since the company's inception in 2002, the industry and OleumTech's product line has steadily progressed from simple single well location monitoring to more complex monitoring and control applications to today's long distance, multi-well control applications. An example of the capabilities of current wireless technology is demonstrated in a recent Barnett Shale application located near Fort Worth, Texas.

The subject location included a central location with five-meter runs for gas flow measurement and an associated RTU for flow calculations. The RTU serves as the master or control device for the application. OleumTech's WIO Base Unit is integrated with the RTU via serial communication at the central location and manages the wireless end devices and control operations.

Located 500 feet from the RTU is a central tank battery that serves five wells in proximity to the central location. Well five is located quarter of a mile, wells two and four are located half a mile, well three five miles and well one 10 miles from the base unit.  

Wireless devices utilized in the installation include the aforementioned WIO Base Unit, which manages the wireless devices and provides a link to the RTU and the host SCADA system via RS232. The base unit also accepts commands from the RTU utilized in the plunger lift optimization of each well. Each of the 10 tanks is monitored by float type digital tank measurement device. Power and communications to each tank measurement device is provided by an OleumTech WIO LevelMate Monitor. The LevelMate Monitor is a CSA and FM approved, self-contained product that provides power and communications without an external power source, thus eliminating the need for cable or solar panels to recharge batteries. At each of the five well locations, a base unit is utilized to manage local plunger lift control. These units provide valve control at each location and monitor chemical injection.

The system functions in the following manner. At the tanks, the LevelMate Monitors 'wake up' every 15 minutes and power up the probe for the interval required to obtain a stabilized reading. This method of operation conserves power and allows a typical battery life of three to five years. Data is then communicated via radio to the base unit and is available to the control unit and SCADA System. Should a high tank level or other alarm occur, the well can be shut down via the base unit thus preventing a spill. Each well is equipped with a base unit to manage plunger lift control. The WIO Base Unit utilizes external power provided at the location due to the frequency that pressure data is read and transmitted. Functions performed at the well include reading pressure data every second, performing valve control in accordance with the plunger lift optimization program, detecting the plunger lift arrival sensor and monitoring the chemical injection tank located at the well.

This installation provides a great example of the increasing capabilities and complexity of wireless field monitoring and control. Such installations maximize utilization of high-powered flow computers and RTUs while increasing operating efficiency and safety at the locations.

Paul Gregory is Chairman and CFO of OleumTech Corporation.