The SPE has split the former "Management & Information" technical discipline into two new technical discplines:
- Management
- Data Science & Engineering Analytics
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The SPE has split the former "Management & Information" technical discipline into two new technical discplines:
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Summary Oil and Gas remain critical components of the world's energy supply mix and there is an increasing need for minimizing the environmental impact associated with hydrocarbons. To address the trilemma of sustainability issues, including resources depletion, waste accumulation and ecosystem degradation, Abqaiq Plants, where over 5% of global oil production is processed, has established and embedded a systematic Circular Economy program for identifying business opportunities to reduce environmental impacts and GHG while improving economic and environmental sustainability. The aim of the circular economy is therefore to make the most of the material resources available to us by applying three basic principles: reduce, reuse and recycle. In this way, the life span of products is extended, waste is used and a more sustainable transition model is established over time. The idea of circular economy ascends from imitating nature, where everything has value and everything is used, where waste becomes a new resource. By implementing circular economy, the balance between progress and sustainability is maintained.
Abstract The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken active steps to adopt cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Cloud, 5G, 3D printing, robotics and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to drive domestic value creation, improve localization, and maximize long-term economic growth and diversification. This is accelerating the digital transformation across many sectors such as energy, mining and logistics, tourism and culture and education, and advancing their business operation activities. Saudi Aramco, a world leader in hydrocarbons exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing, and one of the world's largest exporters of crude oil and natural gas liquids, has always been at the forefront of technologies and continuously invested in digital transformation to maintain our competitiveness. We have realized that 5G plays a pivotal role in bringing all emerging technologies such as advanced analytics, intelligent sensing, mobility, and robotics as part of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 synergy. In January 2021, Saudi Aramco, stc, and Huawei signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to launch a joint innovation program for 5G and explore 5G assisted technologies for specific oil and gas (O&G) industry applications. Private 5G is a promised technology to enable digital transformation at Oil and Gas Facilities due to its unique capabilities. The deployment options for private 5G at enterprise, similar to Saudi Aramco case, could be Leased from Service Provider, Fully Owned by the Enterprise, or Hybrid Model. This report is focusing on the implementation of the third deployment model; Hybrid model, Network-Shared RAN & Control Plane, with the service provider, that was implemented in collaborations with STC and their network provider Huawei at Abqaiq plant. Private 5G deployment at Saudi Aramco has introduced eight (8) use cases related to safety, security, and plant operation. The use cases were selected collectively by several organizations within Saudi Aramco including Industrial Security, loss prevention, and Abqaiq plant Operations. The selected use cases end-user components are novel and had been co-invented and developed jointly with different partners to accelerate the maturity of industrial 5G ecosystem. Based on the pilot results, Saudi Aramco is planning to expand the 5G deployment through Hybrid model capitalizing on Shared Radio Access Network (RAN) to achieve design simplicity, scalability, and optimized cost.
Abstract This paper presents a systemic approach using Engineering and analytics methods to avail the fastest and safest responses to recovering business operations after Abqaiq Plants major disruption after the 2019 September 14th incident. This new approach using value and agile engineering, risk management methodologies combined with the business continuity model suggested was successfully applied to recover Abqaiq Plants Operations after catastrophic events occurred. This paper pretends to serve as example about how the business continuity plan should response to a major emergency and how this planning activity could be effectively supported using a Value Oriented Engineering Solutions (VOES). This VOES approach is based on Business continuity framework and adapted for use during emergency situations to generate effective and urgent responses to recover one of the most strategical operations in the Oil and Gas Industry worldwide ahead of the last year significant disruption. VOES approach vastly implemented during Abqaiq Plants Restoration allowed a 100% functional recovery on 9 days, 5 days in advance to the most optimistic scenario. This paper shows a case study implemented for major instrumentation and electrical equipment activities performed in UA Spheroids plant, one of the most affected area and responsible to process the 100% of the Abqaiq Plants Oil Production rate. This paper pretends to contribute with the research and practice on business continuity management. Considering a particular approach to BCM, incorporating value-oriented engineering solutions in the developing of continuity plans; we apply model-based techniques to provide quality assurance in the elaboration process, and to automate the generation/update of a BCP. On the practical side, this study converts Operational, Maintenance, Safety and Reliability perspectives in a holistic view provided from Engineering solutions responsible to generate the guidelines for an agile, effective and realizable recovery plan.
I vividly recall a trip with my family when I was 10 years old from my hometown Hofuf to Dammam city on the east coast of Saudi Arabia. This was the early 1970s, and we passed through the northern part of Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world. We also drove through Abqaiq city, which was established by Aramco as a crude-handling facility. During that trip I was wondering what oil and gas would bring to me and to my country, Saudi Arabia. During that time, Saudi Arabia was at the initial stage of educational, industrial, and scientific evolution, trying to catch up with the more advanced West.
Saudi Aramco said it plans to fully restore its production capacity by the end of the month following the 14 September drone attack on its oil processing facilities at Abqaiq and Khurais. The news sent Brent crude oil prices back on the decline, offsetting some of the sharp increase that occurred as markets responded to reports that 5.7 million B/D of production--or 5% of global supply--was shut in. However, assurances delivered by Aramco President and Chief Executive Officer Amin Nasser and Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman during a 17 September news conference were met with skepticism by some market observers. "Don't get too excited--there is clear risk of a slower restart of Saudi Arabian oil production despite the optimistic guidance by Saudi Aramco," said Bjornar Tonhaugen, chief oil market analyst at Rystad Energy, in comments from the consultancy. The Saudi officials said output at Khurais oil field resumed 24 hours after the attack, while production at the Abqaiq oil processing facility stood at 2 million B/D.
Over the weekend, Saudi oil facilities were attacked by drones allegedly launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen, knocking off nearly half of Saudi oil production, spooking the Saudi stock market, and raising fears of a spike in both the price of oil and regional tensions. It's one of the biggest attacks on global energy infrastructure in decades, but it's still not clear if the damage will be short-lived and easily contained or if it will weigh on the global economy for weeks to come and lead to further escalation in regional conflict. Houthi rebels in Yemen took credit for the strikes on 14 September with multiple drones that damaged Saudi oil fields and Abqaiq, a key oil-processing facility in the eastern part of the country. The attack on the very heart of the global oil industry--Abqaiq processes about 7 million BOPD, or roughly 7% of the world's crude output--made real what had been long considered by Saudi and western security planners to be a nightmare scenario. Saudi officials shut down more than 5 million B/D of oil-output capability, about half the kingdom's daily production, while they put out the fires and assessed the damage; a formal report on the extent of the damage and the duration of any disruption is expected early next week, but Saudi oil officials told Reuters the outages could take weeks to repair.
Attacks on two of Saudi Arabia's biggest oil and gas facilities have removed 5.7 million B/D of crude from world markets--more than 5% of global supply. On 14 September, a combination of drones and cruise missiles were launched from unknown origin. In all, there were 19 confirmed strikes on oil and gas processing facilities operated by Saudi Aramco at Abqaiq and Khurais. The disruption was labelled by energy analysts as the largest ever in terms of volume. Traders responded by sending Brent crude prices up by as much as 19.5% at the opening bell, the biggest increase since the breakout of the Gulf War in 1991.
President's column I vividly recall a trip with my family when I was 10 years old from my hometown Hofuf to Dammam city on the east coast of Saudi Arabia. This was the early 1970s, and we passed through the northern part of Ghawar, the largest oil field in the world. We also drove through Abqaiq city, which was established by Aramco as a crude-handling facility. During that trip I was wondering what oil and gas would bring to me and to my country, Saudi Arabia. During that time, Saudi Arabia was at the initial stage of educational, industrial, and scientific evolution, trying to catch up with the more advanced West. I remember Saudi Aramco (Aramco back then) was the company where most of the people in Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia dreamt of working. Not only was Aramco a source of a reliable job with good pay, but also health, education, sport, food, and entertainment. To my generation in Saudi Arabia, the oil and gas industry was everything a young person dreamt of. During that trip, while gazing through the drilling rigs and flares on both sides of the highway at night, I created for myself a goal to be part of this great industry. My thoughts back then were limited to myself and my family, hoping for more economic prosperity and happiness. Today, after 45 years, I can observe how oil and gas has brought economic prosperity not only to myself and my family, but to my country. I also see the positive impacts globally. Saudi Arabia has evolved in a very short time to be one of the top developing countries, one of the top 20 global economies, primarily because of oil and gas. In a few decades, Saudi Arabia achieved extraordinary advancements in many areas—economy, health, education, manufacturing, agriculture, sport, and entertainment. It isn’t just exporting countries though. South Korea is an example of an importing country that has also developed due to oil and gas. Imported energy supplied the fuel for its development in advanced electronics, automobiles, and heavy industry. In mid-March, the SPE Board of Directors held a meeting in Ghana. Just days before, The New York Times published an article projecting that Ghana will be the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2018. This is primarily due to the recent offshore natural gas discoveries and the high potential for more oil and gas development in the region. Like many parts of Africa, Ghana does not have a countrywide electrical grid, and most current electric power comes from diesel major changes in the quality of the environment and the lives of people throughout Ghana. A number of other African countries have also had recent discoveries, meaning that even more people may benefit as these resources are developed.
Abstract In Saudi Aramco, Abqaiq plants, steam is produced by boiling water via sever-al boilers segregated in two plants. The steam produced is connected to the main steam header supplying all Abqaiq plant users, mainly steam turbines with a 625 psig. All Abqaiq plant steam turbines are designed to receive 625 psig and produce 60 psig which is then connected to a separate steam header for further utilization before it is condensed back as water and returned to our water tanks facility. Along the steam piping network, there are drain lines con-nected to the atmosphere to release and vent accumulated condensed water to prevent hammering issues in the steam piping network. In order to prevent steam from escaping along these drains, a "Steam Traps" device is installed to allow condensed water to be released and prevent steam from leaking. Howev-er, as with most facilities worldwide, steam trap failure rates cause a nuisance to plant operations and are a major energy waste issue. After the troubleshoot-ing phase, survey completion and trialing different types of steam traps, a permanent solution was found and is planned to be implemented and will gen-erate an approximate savings of $ 828,000 per year. In this paper, trouble-shooting stages, technology trialed and results will be presented.
Abstract To meet the future sustainability requirement, major energy suppliers in the world have been pursuing the highest standards of environmental policy to contribute the conservation of natural resources through operation excellence and energy optimization. Abqaiq Plant is the largest oil stabilization plant in the world. A small improvement in separation process could lead to significant energy saving and reduction of CO2 release for its large scale. The crude oil processing units at Abqaiq Plant have two major functions. First, crude feeds from oil field are stripped with steam which increases the moisture content of offgas from the oil stabilization column. Second, the low pressure offgas is pressurized to 450 psig for separation of NGL products. The final NGL product is transferred to the downstream refinery for further processing and the offgas from the NGL facility is transferred to the downstream gas plants for sulfur removal. For years, gas pipelines have been suffering from back pressure caused by liquid condensate accumulation in the pipeline. To reduce the back pressure, enhancement of NGL recovery is required but the challenge is to lower the deethanizer operation temperature without hydrate formation. As a part of the global downstream pipeline and plant optimization program, Saudi Aramco has invested $65MM capital expense for triethylene glycol (TEG) dehydration unit at the world largest oil stabilization facility to reduce the frequency of pipeline scraping. The success of this project would eliminate 2 million pipeline scraping cost and 40 million of liquid condensate reprocessing and liquid flaring every year. The liquid condensate flaring has imposed a serious adverse environmental impacts and risk to operator exposure to hydrogen sulfide. Commissioning of the TEG dehydration unit was initially unsuccessful for the issue of plant piping network back pressure. To achieve the full benefits of the newly implemented TEG unit, the Abqaiq Plant operation engineering unit has utilized the advanced real time optimization (RTO) model to identify the root causes of failure. Process studies including the feasibility of steady state normal operating conditions and the piping flow estimations were completed by RTO data reconciliation model. Further offline studies for pressure drop analyses on piping networks were completed with additional pipe diameters and roughness data. The location of back pressure was identified by the advanced engineering tool.