Oilfields of the future – Today

O&G speaks to Ross Philo, Director, Global Energy Solutions at Cisco Systems, to unearth the tangible benefits of digital oilfields and how oil companies can get the most out of these technologies.

O&G. What does the digital oilfield entail and why is it so important nowadays?
RP. The digital oilfield provides the ability to instrument and link all aspects of down-hole and up-hole operations at remote sites with regional offices and headquarters in order to drive efficiency and bring new levels of collaboration to the oilfields. This is especially valuable at a time when the industry is experiencing a growing shortage of expertise as the older and experienced workforce retires. Using the network as a platform will allow experienced staff to provide assistance to less experienced workers at the wellsite from any point in the world.

O&G. What are the critical elements to creating a successful digital oilfield?
RP. The necessary technologies already exist, but realization of the digital oilfield is dependent on a shared consensus and leadership of companies to take the first step towards a shared network. There has also been a concern on the part of operating companies to converge process control networks onto an IP backbone. However, process control technology is shifting to an IP-based approach, and network convergence can be implemented in a highly secure and very effective manner to address these concerns by using a properly architected solution. By taking a lead, Cisco is hoping to demonstrate that the digital oilfield can deliver the long awaited benefits of improved productivity, reduced costs and increased reliability, safety and employee satisfaction.

O&G. What is the migration path and timeframe for it to come to fruition?
RP. The best way to bring the digital oilfield to fruition is to create pilot projects based on our architecture and evaluate the operational and financial benefits. Once those have been proven, you can leverage the expertise and experience to progressively extend this to locations worldwide, so oil companies can access and manage their various assets. Some leading companies are already moving in this direction and now have the capability to monitor and manage their operations anywhere in the world from a small number of key operation centers. The key is taking those examples and using them as best practices to drive the rest of the industry towards this same goal.

O&G. What are the key challenges to the realization of the digital oilfield?
RP. The biggest challenge will be overcoming some of the uncertainty about security of company information, people and processes. Traditionally, a lot of the connectivity that was provided for the digital oilfield was done on a case-by-case basis or company-by-company basis. Now with recent technological advances and leveraging the IP network, multiple users will be allowed to use a shared infrastructure based on an IP network platform that is highly secure for each company. Their representatives on an offshore location, can communicate back to their parent organization, whilst creating a shared, collaborative environment on the rig where people need to work and share information.

O&G. Oil and gas companies are concerned about the security of their network. What key technology is now helping to assuage their hesitations toward a single, shared network?
RP. Clearly, the emergence of the IP network, which is the foundation of the Internet, has driven a great deal of work in the security space. What we are able to do now is provide secure, virtual and private networks where traffic is securely separated so that the oil companies and their service companies can operate in a secure and seamless manner. There is also the opportunity to extend these best practices from the enterprise network out into the industrial arena – moving from the carpeted space into an industrial, “hardhat and steel toecap” environment. People need to have the access back to the information, back to the support of their parent company but also be able to collaborate securely. So really it is a case of taking established best practices of how to manage an enterprise securely, and extend the enterprise network into the industrial environment in a seamless way.

O&G. What differentiates Cisco and how is this solution going to help achieve the digital oilfield?
RP. I think everybody realizes that Cisco has a tremendous investment in networking capabilities and most companies would recognize our leadership in that space, as well as the leadership we put into developing secure architectures. What we have brought to the industry is a design that we refer to as ‘Secure Architecture For Energy (SAFE)’. This allows us to implement secure networks with the sort of collaboration and connectivity that is required in a very safe and secure manner. I think the architecture has been evaluated and very well received by industry bodies such as Idaho National Labs (INL). We are looking for their validation of this as an industry-leading design. I think once that validation is done, we will be able to get this type of solution adopted by the industry with a great deal of confidence. A lot of these companies like to know that the designs have been reviewed by independent bodies and not just put forward by Cisco, despite our leadership on this technology.

O&G. How does this holistic approach ensure success for oil companies?
RP. The IP network touches various areas of an oil company – whether it is a process controller, a PC being used for analysis, sensors in a process control network, or even inventory within a supply base. Every person, item and device will have an address on the network. Therefore, companies can leverage that network as a platform to manage security, data flows and information that they need in order to really manage their business in the most cost-effective way. This means that companies get the right information and make the right decision at the right time.

O&G. You come from an O&G background. How are you bringing your O&G expertise into the IT security market?
RP. The nice thing that Cisco has done is to reach out to industry experts like myself in order to better understand the business drivers in the oil and gas industry. Of course, security and safety have always been high priority industry goals to ensure health, safety, and environmental compliance. To achieve this, Cisco is bringing folks like myself onboard to be able to really engage with the business leaders. This means we are able to explain the vision that we have and show how our holistic approach – using the network as a platform – will help them deliver on improved safety as well as addressing a whole series of other industry concerns, such as improving production, increasing reservoir replacement, increasing efficiencies, and so on. Leveraging the network as a common thread that touches all aspects of the business is essential in today’s world. By bringing people from the industry, Cisco is raising its credibility, helping to raise awareness of our solutions and delivering them to the industry. Cisco believes this will help bring the digital oilfield to reality after all of the hype that it has suffered in the last few years.

Ross Philo serves as director of global energy solutions for Cisco, where he helps form the company's strategy and activities in the oil and gas sector. Philo has extensive international industry experience in upstream exploration with particular interest in the digital oilfield. During more than 30 years in the industry, Philo has served as CIO at Halliburton, CEO at Visean and in several IT strategy leadership roles at Schlumberger.