Brazil-Norway R&D workshop
Rio de Janeiro, May 26, 2011
Agustinho Plucenio
Laboratory for Smart Fields Automation
Department of Automation and Systems Engineering
Federal University of Santa Catarina
DAS-UFSC R&D Efforts for the oil industry
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Who we are
PRH-ANP Program – PRH34
Research Projects
LACI
INPetro
Ongoing R&D Project
NTNU Cooperation
The Federal University of
Santa Catarina
• Located in Florianopolis
(pop. 600,000)
• 25,000 undergraduates
• 3,500 graduates
• ≃ 2,000 faculty members
Department of Automation and Systems Engineering
http://www.das.ufsc.br/das/index.php
 24 faculty members
 360 undergraduates (1st of its kind in Brazil)
 40 M.Eng. students
 50 Ph.D. students
 Control theory and applications
 Linear and nonlinear control
 Discrete event systems
 Predictive control
 Robotics
 Industrial informatics
 Real-time embedded systems
 Industrial networks
 General computing
 Fault tolerance
 Secure network systems
 Algorithms
 Optimization
Program PRHMultiphase Flow Lab
ANP34
Construction (CNPQ)
NW Control 1 R&D Project
with PetrobrasLab
CENPES
LACI Project with
(CNPQ)
Petrobras-CENPES
Construction
2 R&D Project with
Distilation
Petrobras-CENPES
column
3 R&D Project with
Petrobras-CENPES
Program financed by the National
Agency of Petroleum, Gas and Bio
fuels for Human Resources
Development
with the theme
Automation and Control for
the Oil and Gas Industry.
Chem. Eng.
C&A Eng.
Main objective:
Mech. Eng.
To complement the education
of engineers at the undergraduate and graduate levels
in the area of automation,
control and instrumentation
to work in the petroleum
industry.
 Automation and Control of wells with elevation by gas-lift,
 Optimization of gas-lift operations,
 Drilling bit wear prediction using neural networks,
Oscillation control using switched systems applied to severe slug control,
 Variable Structure Control for the suppression of oscillations in oil well drilling
systems,
 ARMAX and NARMAX model identification of oil wells operating by gas-lift,
 Model Predictive Control for nonlinear systems,
 Low cost water fraction meter based on micro-wave,
 Multiphase flow meter based on online partial separators,
 Development of New Drilling control techniques based on the theory of
non-smooth dynamical systems,
 Nonlinear Model Predictive Control applied to a water injection development
project,
 Gas-lift optimization with constraints on transportation and handling
facilities of produced fluids,
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Development of control algorithms for artificial lift
methods (Petrobras-CENPES) (2006-2009)
Multiphase Flow meter for heavy oil phase 1
(CNPQ-CTPetro) (2008-2010)
LACI – Laboratory for the Automation of Intelligent
oilfields (Petrobras-CENPES) (2008-2011)
Advanced control systems and production real time
optimization (Petrobras-CENPES) (2010-2013)
Intelligent agents for distributed control of complex
system (Petrobras-CENPES) (2009-2010)
Objective:
To develop solutions
for the automation
of oil wells that
optimize production
using online surface
and down hole
measurements.
One feature of the project is the utilization of
Programmable Logic Computers connected with
the well simulators and running the control
algorithms (HIL concept).
For continuous gas lift:
 Use of different WPC models
 pwf steady state detection via MPA
 Automatic procedure via MPA for model parameter update
 Automatic procedure for gas re-allocation due to:
• gas flow rate availability
• well model changes
• well put in forced operation
• separation capacity constraints
 Introduction of control and optimization algorithms in
LAPLACE and MPA
 Automatic procedures to re-start gas lift wells
 Study of a a solution based on NMPC
u
qg
q
*
g
, y
y  1e
pwf
*
pwf
  2u m
*
~
p wf  yp wf
  3   4u 2
Main Laplace screen
Screen for variables
configuration
During the project 3 approaches were
studied for automatically re-starting
gas lift wells with:
 Classical control
algorithms
 Switching Control
 Fuzzy Logic
Control of gas lift wells with NMPC
 optimize gas allocation
 stabilize GLM pressure
 minimizes wellhead flow rate
oscillations during gas lift flow rate
changes
GLM Setup
GL Hammerstein dynamic
model
Sucker rod pump well
Developments:
 Development of a dynamic
simulator
 Development of control
strategies using down hole
pressure measurements
 Fault detection techniques
using down hole measurements
Conventional fluid pound level detection used to update
Down hole pressure set-point
PCA approach
a) Normal operation
b) Leak in the standing valve
c )Leak on the traveling valve
d) Fluid pound
Fault patterns
Main objective: To initiate research on
low cost measurement techniques for
multiphase flow for heavy oil.
Other objectives:
 installation of a
multiphase flow laboratory
for teaching purpose,
 to study sensors for water
in oil content, flow-rate
measurements of gas flow,
gas-liquid flow,
 to test techniques for the
control of severe slug flow,
 to study new separation
techniques.
Prototype being
developed in the LEEM
Gas flow-rate measurement
Level
measurement
Gas
Gas treatment (scrubbercompression, etc.)
Control
system
In line
gas-liquid
separator
Liquid flow-rate
measurement
Output values of oil, water
and gas flow-rates
Oil-water
Water cut meter
Second stage
separator
Motivation:
What is needed to develop and test reliable,
catastrophic failure proof automation systems to
control remote offshore production facilities like
unmanned platforms?
Is simulation enough?
To build a laboratory to test automation and control
of production facilities including oil wells is similar to
what was done in the airplane industry with the
construction of Wind Tunnels.
The facility should be designed
for testing optimization
algorithms, fault detection and
control algorithms conceived to a
remote operation scenario.
It should allow:
 To test new down hole instruments
 To test fault detection (real induced
fault)
 To test new control and automation
surface instruments
 To test constraint handling like gas
injection flow rate, leaks, etc.
Ps   w gh
P
Pss 
 
kAww gh
gh


qq  PI ( PPs 
Pwf) 
P

s
wf
q  PI
(
P

P
)
H

g
s
wf
Fluid level controlled
to simulate different
depletion levels
 k A
( Pest .  Pwf )
q  
 L
q  PI ( Pest .  Pwf )
Gravel with 4 grain sizes were
investigated:
• Gravel 1: 0,59mm a 1,00mm
• Gravel 2: 0,71mm a 1,41mm
• Gravel 3: 1,00mm a 2,00mm
• Gravel 4: 2,00mm a 3,36mm.
Simulations with
OLGA™ confirm
expected dynamic
behavior
The wellheads are
installed inside a pit
Created by Research groups
from Mechanical , Automation
and Systems and Chemical
Engineering with financing of
Petrobras.
Main characteristics:
 8800 m2
 >35 MR$
Main building (light Labs) Heavy Labs
20 Laboratories
instrumentation,
Computational
vision
Optical sensors
Corrosion,
Combustion.
Multiphase flow,
Automation,
Inteligent sensors,
Robotics,
Etc.
 LACI
 Pipeline tests,
Robotic welding
Laser welding
 soldagem a laser ,
 Multidisciplinary
projects
A pool for
development and
testing technology
for underwater
welding with robots.
INPetro in the Sapiens Park – art. view
Localization in Florianopolis Island
INPetro – art. view
Main building
outside view
Main building inside view
Research Goals:
Develop systems for real-time optimization, control and
automation of production units and oil fields.
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Modeling
Control strategies
Optimization
Fault detection
GL - density wave behavior
GL - heading behavior
Without control
With control
applied
Research goals
 Models for mathematical optimization of
equipment and production processes
 Efficient algorithms for real-time optimal
operation
 Frameworks for system-wide optimization
Current research topics
 Piecewise-linear models for
optimal lift-gas allocation
and separator alignment
 Piecewise-linear models of
multidimensional functions
for pressure constraints
 Models for compressor
allocation and scheduling
Using simulators
SENSOR ™ and
ECLIPSE™
Our initial strategy is to use the
knowledge existent in the
simulator to build the dynamic
representation of the process
variables as function of the
manipulated variables.
Challenge: Is the solution the
global optimum?
Since 2007 researchers of
DAS-UFSC, NTNU and
Petrobras-CENPES have had
academic meetings in
congress and workshops.
Prof. Dr. Ricardo Rabelo, Chief
of the Automation and Systems
Engineering Department-DAS
UFSC talks minutes before
signing an academic
cooperation term with NTNU .
COPPE-UFRJ - February 18/2011.
Takk
Thank you Obrigado