Firefighting Drones - A Safer & Efficient Technology to Confront Industrial Fires

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Abdalla Almughani-Alnaqbi

Abstract Objectives/Scope This paper presents the variety of possibilities that this new technology can offer and how we can apply those technologies to optimize our HSE and take preventive measures that will be economically and humane solutions to crises. New technology, including Artificial Intelligence & Robots, does not necessarily mean it will replace human jobs and human judgment but will be used as tools to minimize hazards in critical situations and helps to solve the problems in a faster and efficient way. Methods, Procedures, Process The recommended technology to fight fire in hazardous zones can be described as a “firefighting drone.” This drone can be considered a faster and safer approach for fire suppression that can respond to any fire alarms and fly in narrow places inside the live plant, crude oil storage tanks, and navigate quickly to exact fire location without any fear of crashing it to anything and eliminates the risk of reaching high rise buildings where it is not secured and has low visibility. One such method is a firefighting drone that carries fire extinguisher balls, where it mainly consists of dry powders that contain melamine phosphate as an extinguishing component. This extinguishing ball works as a fire auto hydrant that is attached to the drone. This mechanism helps the drone carry the fire extinguisher balls to any place and throw the ball into the fire to suppress it. The main advantage of such fire extinguisher balls is its lightweight comparing to water, and it is environmentally safe and harmless to the human body if used in hazardous zones such as oil and gas plants. Results, Observations, and Conclusions Studies show that fire extinguisher balls have high extinguishing effectiveness and serve a wide range of applications. Results show that around 0.5 kg ball size has the ability to extinguish a 1-meter radius. This paper explains how easy its to build such a drone. However, due to the nature of this application using thermal resistance material is a must, and utilizing Artificial Intelligence will enhance the drone capabilities & will help to improve firefighting methodology. This type of drone is designed to be used in very high-temperature conditions and can be controlled safely from a ground station manually where you can see the fire location and assess the situation without the need to be there and wait for the fire team's presence. Novel/Additive Information With the use of the new lightweight fire extinguish ball, we can enhance the typical current firefighting method for small and medium-scale fire, where it puts out the fire faster & help us prevent it from growing to a more significant fire. The ultimate goal of this drone is to save the life of firefighters, plants, and equipment. Since the oil and gas industry is of high importance in the UAE, using proper and enhanced HSE measures will maintain our assets and avoid crises that will have a massive impact on business continuity.

Author(s):  
Raisa Azieva

New breakthrough technologies can have a positive or negative impact on the development of the fuel and energy sector. Therefore, the main thing is to evaluate technologies, analyze their suitability for the industry and determine priorities for future opportunities, i.e., identify technologies that provide new advantages for the energy world, and determine how, when and how their impact will become tangible. In this regard, researchers have determined that the innovative technology of the XXI century, recognized to transform the national and global economy is the blockchain technology. The article provides an overview of blockchain technology, defines the principles of its operation and possible applications, i.e., identifies the mechanism of action of the revolutionary system, as well as presents the players of the oil and gas industry to launch blockchain technology and identifies the advantages of innovative technology used in the oil and gas sector. It is determined that on the basis of the new technology, it is possible to create a single network for digitizing all interaction processes and automating them. The study also shows that the scope of application of blockchain in the oil and gas business is much broader, which determines the possibility of further consideration of a wide range of the need for the use of blockchain technology for the oil and gas industry, as well as its impact on the development of oil and gas companies.


Author(s):  
Ali Sepehri ◽  
Stuart Harbert ◽  
Joe Wilhelmi

The oil and gas industry is currently drilling into and producing from wells in high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) environments. This has created a greater demand to develop more advanced tools and new technology to safely overcome the challenges in these operations. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) requires equipment operating in HPHT environments to pass a design verification analysis. The design verification shall be evaluated using finite element analysis (FEA) per ASME Boiler Pressure Vessel Code (BPVC), Section VIII, Division 3 [1] and API 17TR8 [2]. The objective of this study is to generate a pressure-bending-tension (PBT) capacity chart per the elastic-plastic analysis methodology (global collapse criteria) outlined in KD-230 [1] for a subsea tree connector. The PBT capacity chart covers a wide range of normal operating conditions. Results indicate that the structural capacities from the elastic-plastic analysis methodology are higher than those determined by the standard elastic analysis methodology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (01) ◽  
pp. 12-13
Author(s):  
Manas Pathak ◽  
Tonya Cosby ◽  
Robert K. Perrons

Artificial intelligence (AI) has captivated the imagination of science-fiction movie audiences for many years and has been used in the upstream oil and gas industry for more than a decade (Mohaghegh 2005, 2011). But few industries evolve more quickly than those from Silicon Valley, and it accordingly follows that the technology has grown and changed considerably since this discussion began. The oil and gas industry, therefore, is at a point where it would be prudent to take stock of what has been achieved with AI in the sector, to provide a sober assessment of what has delivered value and what has not among the myriad implementations made so far, and to figure out how best to leverage this technology in the future in light of these learnings. When one looks at the long arc of AI in the oil and gas industry, a few important truths emerge. First among these is the fact that not all AI is the same. There is a spectrum of technological sophistication. Hollywood and the media have always been fascinated by the idea of artificial superintelligence and general intelligence systems capable of mimicking the actions and behaviors of real people. Those kinds of systems would have the ability to learn, perceive, understand, and function in human-like ways (Joshi 2019). As alluring as these types of AI are, however, they bear little resemblance to what actually has been delivered to the upstream industry. Instead, we mostly have seen much less ambitious “narrow AI” applications that very capably handle a specific task, such as quickly digesting thousands of pages of historical reports (Kimbleton and Matson 2018), detecting potential failures in progressive cavity pumps (Jacobs 2018), predicting oil and gas exports (Windarto et al. 2017), offering improvements for reservoir models (Mohaghegh 2011), or estimating oil-recovery factors (Mahmoud et al. 2019). But let’s face it: As impressive and commendable as these applications have been, they fall far short of the ambitious vision of highly autonomous systems that are capable of thinking about things outside of the narrow range of tasks explicitly handed to them. What is more, many of these narrow AI applications have tended to be modified versions of fairly generic solutions that were originally designed for other industries and that were then usefully extended to the oil and gas industry with a modest amount of tailoring. In other words, relatively little AI has been occurring in a way that had the oil and gas sector in mind from the outset. The second important truth is that human judgment still matters. What some technology vendors have referred to as “augmented intelligence” (Kimbleton and Matson 2018), whereby AI supplements human judgment rather than sup-plants it, is not merely an alternative way of approaching AI; rather, it is coming into focus that this is probably the most sensible way forward for this technology.


2020 ◽  
pp. 42-45
Author(s):  
J.A. Kerimov ◽  

The implementation of plastic details in various constructions enables to reduce the prime cost and labor intensity of machine and device manufacturing, decrease the weight of design and improve their quality and reliability at the same time. The studies were carried out with the aim of labor productivity increase and substitution of colored and black metals with plastic masses. For this purpose, the details with certain characteristics were selected for further implementation of developed technological process in oil-gas industry. The paper investigates the impact of cylinder and compression mold temperature on the quality parameters (shrinkage and hardness) of plastic details in oil-field equipment. The accessible boundaries of quality indicators of the details operated in the equipment of exploration, drilling and exploitation of oil and gas industry are studied in a wide range of mode parameters. The mathematic dependences between quality parameters (shrinkage and hardness) of the details on casting temperature are specified.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nouf AlJabri ◽  
Nan Shi

Abstract Nanoemulsions (NEs) are kinetically stable emulsions with droplet size on the order of 100 nm. Many unique properties of NEs, such as stability and rheology, have attracted considerable attention in the oil industry. Here, we review applications and studies of NEs for major upstream operations, highlighting useful properties of NEs, synthesis to render these properties, and techniques to characterize them. We identify specific challenges associated with large-scale applications of NEs and directions for future studies. We first summarize useful and unique properties of NEs, mostly arising from the small droplet size. Then, we compare different methods to prepare NEs based on the magnitude of input energy, i.e., low-energy and high-energy methods. In addition, we review techniques to characterize properties of NEs, such as droplet size, volume fraction of the dispersed phase, and viscosity. Furthermore, we discuss specific applications of NEs in four areas of upstream operations, i.e., enhanced oil recovery, drilling/completion, flow assurance, and stimulation. Finally, we identify challenges to economically tailor NEs with desired properties for large-scale upstream applications and propose possible solutions to some of these challenges. NEs are kinetically stable due to their small droplet size (submicron to 100 nm). Within this size range, the rate of major destabilizing mechanisms, such as coalescence, flocculation, and Ostwald ripening, is considerably slowed down. In addition, small droplet size yields large surface-to-volume ratio, optical transparency, high diffusivity, and controllable rheology. Similar to applications in other fields (food industry, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc.), the oil and gas industry can also benefit from these useful properties of NEs. Proposed functions of NEs include delivering chemicals, conditioning wellbore/reservoir conditions, and improve chemical compatibility. Therefore, we envision NEs as a versatile technology that can be applied in a variety of upstream operations. Upstream operations often target a wide range of physical and chemical conditions and are operated at different time scales. More importantly, these operations typically consume a large amount of materials. These facts not only suggest efforts to rationally engineer properties of NEs in upstream applications, but also manifest the importance to economically optimize such efforts for large-scale operations. We summarize studies and applications of NEs in upstream operations in the oil and gas industry. We review useful properties of NEs that benefit upstream applications as well as techniques to synthesize and characterize NEs. More importantly, we identify challenges and opportunities in engineering NEs for large-scale operations in different upstream applications. This work not only focuses on scientific aspects of synthesizing NEs with desired properties but also emphasizes engineering and economic consideration that is important in the oil industry.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armstrong Lee Agbaji

Abstract Historically, the oil and gas industry has been slow and extremely cautious to adopt emerging technologies. But in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the industry has broken from tradition. It has not only embraced AI; it is leading the pack. AI has not only changed what it now means to work in the oil industry, it has changed how companies create, capture, and deliver value. Thanks, or no thanks to automation, traditional oil industry skills and talents are now being threatened, and in most cases, rendered obsolete. Oil and gas industry day-to-day work is progressively gravitating towards software and algorithms, and today’s workers are resigning themselves to the fact that computers and robots will one day "take over" and do much of their work. The adoption of AI and how it might affect career prospects is currently causing a lot of anxiety among industry professionals. This paper details how artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics has redefined what it now means to work in the oil industry, as well as the new challenges and responsibilities that the AI revolution presents. It takes a deep-dive into human-robot interaction, and underscores what AI can, and cannot do. It also identifies several traditional oilfield positions that have become endangered by automation, addresses the premonitions of professionals in these endangered roles, and lays out a roadmap on how to survive and thrive in a digitally transformed world. The future of work is evolving, and new technologies are changing how talent is acquired, developed, and retained. That robots will someday "take our jobs" is not an impossible possibility. It is more of a reality than an exaggeration. Automation in the oil industry has achieved outcomes that go beyond human capabilities. In fact, the odds are overwhelming that AI that functions at a comparable level to humans will soon become ubiquitous in the industry. The big question is: How long will it take? The oil industry of the future will not need large office complexes or a large workforce. Most of the work will be automated. Drilling rigs, production platforms, refineries, and petrochemical plants will not go away, but how work is done at these locations will be totally different. While the industry will never entirely lose its human touch, AI will be the foundation of the workforce of the future. How we react to the AI revolution today will shape the industry for generations to come. What should we do when AI changes our job functions and workforce? Should we be training AI, or should we be training humans?


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Max Olsen ◽  
Ragni Hatlebakk ◽  
Chris Holcroft ◽  
Arne Stavland ◽  
Nils Harald Giske ◽  
...  

Abstract Scope Controlled dissolution glasses form a permanent consolidating mineral matrix inside formations with either permeable or impermeable properties. The unique solution has a low injection viscosity and can be easily injected into a wide range of formations. The application method is simple and does not require multiple fluids or pre- and post-flushing. This paper focuses on the benefits of controlled dissolution glasses and potential applications in the oil and gas industry. Methods, Procedures, Process Controlled dissolution glasses have been researched extensively by Glass Technology Services (GTS) since 1999 for the biomedical industry, nuclear waste storage industry, and defense and aerospace industries. GTS together with operators have been performing research and development for the oil industry over the last 10 years. The research investigated different glass compositions to determine their injectability and change in formation properties post-treatment. Sandstone, chalk, and shale formations were used in the testing. Flow testing using a Hoek cell and a core flood apparatus was used to determine the post-treatment permeability. For post-treatment strength measurement, Brazilian tensile strength tests and modified cone penetration tests were used to determine tensile strength and shear strength respectively. The testing evaluated different mixing fluids, such as water and different brines, compatibility, corrosion testing, and concentrations. Results, Observations, Conclusions The testing identified different glass compositions and concentrations that are suitable for different applications and formations. Certain glass compositions increase tensile strength significantly while also maintaining the permeability in the formation. Other glass compositions have similar tensile strength increase, but result in an impermeable seal. The liquid glass solutions react with the formation to form a mineral precipitation inside the formation. The reaction with the formation occurs quickly at downhole conditions, within hours of placement. The glass can be mixed with water and variety of brines to form a stable solution across a range of densities. The testing and results to date have laid the foundation for use in a variety of consolidation and P&A applications in oil and gas wells. Testing is ongoing for a chalk and sandstone consolidation solution and for a sealing solution. Novel/Additive Information These novel glass solutions can solve many of the production and instability challenges that plague weak formations. The glasses can be injected into very low permeability formation to either seal or consolidate.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Asare ◽  
Bruce Burton ◽  
Theresa Dunne

PurposeThis study explores Ghanaian views about accountability discharge by firms and government in the context of the nation's newly discovered oil and gas resources. The research focusses on a range of issues relating to stakeholder interaction, communication flows and the impact of decision-making on Ghanaian lives, as perceived by individuals on the ground.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adapts elements of legitimacy theory to interpret the outcome of a series of semi-structured interviews with members of key accountee and accountor groups including citizens and representatives of the state and private firms in the oil and gas industry in Ghana.FindingsThe results indicate that rather than attempting to effect substantive accountability discharge, Ghana's government and oil and gas firms employ a wide range of legitimation strategies despite the apparently complete absence of the accountee power normally seen as driving the need for social contract repair.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings suggest that accountability discharge in Ghana is cursory at best, with several legitimising strategies in evidence. The representatives from state institutions appear to share some of the concerns, suggesting that the problems are entrenched and will require robust enforcement of a strengthened regulatory approach to effect meaningful change.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on the discharge of institutional accountability by building on earlier conceptualisations of legitimacy theory to explore perceptions around a recent natural resource discovery. The analysis highlights grave concerns regarding the behaviour of state and corporate actors, one that runs counter to sub-Saharan African tradition.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Enweugwu ◽  
Aghogho Monorien ◽  
Ikechukwu Mbeledogu ◽  
Adewale Dosunmu ◽  
Omowunmi Illedare

Abstract Most unitized Pipelines in Nigeria are Trunk lines which take crude oil from flow stations to the Terminals. Very few International Oil and Gas Companies own and operate trunk lines in Nigeria. As a result, marginal field owners, independent producers, and some JV partners share the trunk line for the sale of their crude. But because of the use of wide range of non-compliant meters by the injectors into the trunk lines a lot of line losses due to measurement errors are introduced. Another major feature is that trunk lines are exposed to leakages due to sabotage, aged pipeline and valve failures. The issue here is how does the owner of the trunk line back allocate these losses to their respective injectors. The Reverse Mass Balanced Methodology (RMBM) is currently in use having replaced Interim Methodology (IM) in 2017. In RMBM, the crude trunk line losses have been found to be unaccountable and it's proportionate rule for distribution of the losses to the producers are inequitable as the field owners expressed dissatisfaction with unfair deduction from trunk line operators. This study developed a procedure and an algorithm for estimation of crude contributions from each producer at the Terminal and equitable distribution of crude trunk line losses to the producers irrespective of the type of meters, meter factor and leakages and sporadic theft on the trunk lines. This study also identified two alternatives to the RMBM, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Flow based models. The results showed that flow-based model accounts for both individual and group losses, not accounted for in the RMBM, and allocates and corrects for leak volumes at the point of leak instead of at the terminal. This is a significant improvement from the RMBM.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhaohui Hong ◽  
Dengfeng Fu ◽  
Wenbin Liu ◽  
Zefeng Zhou ◽  
Yue Yan ◽  
...  

Subsea pipelines are commonly employed in the offshore oil and gas industry to transport high-pressure and high-temperature (HPHT) hydrocarbons. The phenomenon of pipeline walking is a topic that has drawn a great deal of attention, and is related to the on-bottom stability of the pipeline, such as directional accumulation with respect to axial movement, which can threaten the security of the entire pipeline system. An accurate assessment of pipeline walking is therefore necessary for offshore pipeline design. This paper reports a comprehensive suite of numerical analyses investigating the performance of pipeline walking, with a focus on the effect of increasing axial soil resistance on walking rates. Three walking-driven modes (steel catenary riser (SCR) tension, downslope, and thermal transient) are considered, covering a wide range of influential parameters. The variation in walking rate with respect to the effect of increased soil friction is well reflected in the development of the effective axial force (EAF) profile. A method based on the previous analytical solution is proposed for predicting the accumulated walking rates throughout the entire service life, where the concept of equivalent soil friction is adopted.


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