IBP1476 ADVANCED TOOLS FOR THE OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT OF TRANSPORTATION PIPELINES Martin Gusukuma, Ren L.

Varn, Neil Vsquez

Copyright 2012, Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute - IBP

This Technical Paper was prepared for presentation at the Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012, held between September, 1720, 2012, in Rio de Janeiro. This Technical Paper was selected for presentation by the Technical Committee of the event according to the information contained in the final paper submitted by the author(s). The organizers are not supposed to translate or correct the submitted papers. The material as it is presented, does not necessarily represent Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute opinion, or that of its Members or Representatives. Authors consent to the publication of this Technical Paper in the Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 Proceedings.

Objective
The goal of this work is to show how the benefits of having advanced software applications, to support the business and operation of pipelines, can be multiplied by creating a tight integration and a seamless flow of information between the applications and the areas of the company operating them. This work presents the various tools available to operators and administrators of the transportation network and how these tools can support not only specific, very well defined activities, but also facilitate the interaction between different functional areas of the organization.

Summary
This paper presents a detailed vision of how the automation tools support and improve the overall integration between the operational data and the commercial data within a pipeline operator company. The usage of advanced applications, from off-line simulation tools to real time modeling software, interacting with commercial systems ensures the efficient and effective operation of the pipeline and warrants the good performance of the company and the satisfaction of its customers. As part of this vision, the paper provides a general overview of the applications deployed by the pipeline operator as well as a detailed description of a typical gas day and how these applications are used by the internal and external user.

1. Introduction
From the early design stages to the day to day operation of their assets, pipeline companies equip their personnel with sophisticated software tools designed to help them manage and analyze large amounts of information related to each one of their particular areas of responsibility. Making proper use of those software tools, usually known as Advanced Applications, one would expect, should help the companies be more productive and make better use of their assets, thus making them more profitable as a whole. Nevertheless, the experience has shown that the greatest potential for improvement is actually achieved when the information produced by all those software applications is shared at the right levels by the different teams.

2. The challenge of competing interests

As with any other industry in the modern world, pipeline companies are constantly being challenged to increase the return on their assets. On top of that, growing social and environmental concerns put an ever increasing pressure on these companies to operate within the highest standards of safety and security. These two forces pull pipeline companies in two different directions and it can be critical for the business to find ways to balance such forces and the interests of the different stakeholders. As a general rule, the more product is transported through a pipeline, the more profitable it will be and the better the return on the assets; for this reason, the people running the commercial processes of the pipeline are always trying to get that new contract, to close that new deal.

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 On the other hand, the pipeline operators in the control room are the ones responsible for actually delivering the products in the committed amounts and times, all the while ensuring the safety and integrity of the assets. The objectives of these two teams are not always in agreement, particularly when the pipeline is being operated at or near capacity. There will be times when the pipeline simply does not have the physical capacity to safely move the additional product requested by a shipper and there will be times when the physical capacity might be there but it could not be used, either because there is not enough demand or, worse, because the existence of the additional capacity has not been identified because the operational team does not have the real-time modeling tools to quickly simulate the future hydraulic state of the pipeline. As we already mentioned in the Introduction, each one of these groups usually has advanced software tools carefully chosen by the company to help them achieve their specific goals; but, what do they need to do to reconcile their particular interests with those of the company as a whole? Our experience shows that when the pipeline company and software provider work together to establish an adequate framework of communication channels between the applications, and therefore between the teams using them, sharing critical operational and business information becomes much easier, as such information can be presented to each team within the applications that they use on a daily basis, thus making it much more meaningful.

3. Advanced Applications
Pipeline operators rely on sophisticated sets of hardware and software tools for their daily tasks, going from field measurement equipment, data gathering devices, communications facilities to software systems at the control room and commercial facilities. Within these advanced applications are: SCADA Systems, Off-Line Simulation Tools, Real Time Modeling Applications, and Nomination-to-Invoicing management systems. This section provides a general description of each one of these software applications and the different modules relevant to the operation. SCADA System from its initials in English Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition, SCADA is the core system to run and operate a pipeline. Allows users to remotely supervise operational variables (flow, pressure, temperature, composition, etc.), as well as activate and de-active field devices, such as compressors units, block valves, etc. Off-Line Simulation Tools Hydraulic model that allows users to simulate the physical behavior of the fluids going thru the pipeline. Simulations can be performed for steady-state or transient conditions. Its main objective is to provide the user with a detailed picture of the hydraulic incidences of any operational or physical modification in the transportation network. With this tool, users perform What if? analysis and engineering studies in order to evaluate possible operational scenarios. Real Time Model This tool is also based on a hydraulic model but now it performs the simulation using real time data captured from the SCADA system. This simulation allows the user to compare the actual behavior of the transportation system against the calculated behavior. If deviations are detected the application automatically identifies if such deviations are associated to an abnormal operational condition, such as a pipeline rupture, pipeline leak, or other event. It also allows the user to have more accurate information related to hydraulic profiles, line packing rates, inventory calculations and more. In addition, Real Time Models are also the platform to implement other modules, such as Predictive Models, Look Ahead Models and Trainer Applications. Predictive Models and Look Ahead models operate under the same principal, and it is basically evaluate operational conditions for future changes (2-8 hours) in the pipeline. Nomination to Invoicing Management tools These applications allow to track down all the commercial transactions that take place in a transportation pipeline, from capturing the contractual conditions to manage daily or even hourly nominations and follow the commercial events to finalize with the generation of the invoice with all the transportation fees and possible charges associated to the service.

4. Use of Advanced Applications

4.1. Daily Gas Operation An operating gas day can show how necessary specialized software tools become in the management and operation of gas transportation systems; because their overall contributions to the analytical, transactional, and monitoring and dispatch control processes make it possible to comply with the approved customer requests in a timely manner while safeguarding the integrity of the transportation system. The cycle of an operating gas day begins the day before with the transportation nominations entered by all the shippers through the website of the Nominations and Balances System (NABIS). These nominations are automatically consolidated and validated by NABIS, against the capacities contracted with the producer and the transporter by each 2

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 one of the shippers, according to the type of contract and delivery point. The result of this process goes through an initial validation since it is necessary to verify whether or not the producer will deliver enough gas to fully meet all of the requirements. Often times, the consolidated nominations exceed the producers delivering capacity; therefore, the contractual validations mentioned above need to be performed again, making the cuts to each shippers additional requirements, in accordance to their assigned priorities. The new result, however, is not necessarily final because it has to go through a hydraulic analysis to verify that the transportation system will be physically capable to meet the requirements. All these tasks are performed under the supervision of the Nominations and Balances personnel of the company. The result obtained from the validations in the NABIS feeds the hydraulic analysis process to be performed by the Operations Planning staff using the Offline Simulation software. This analysis must be conducted in multiple transient hydraulic simulations in order to provide reliability to the results obtained. The end product of this analysis will be a maximum volume that can be transported, without infringing the operating and safety parameters of the system. This result must be obtained in a very limited amount of time, as is required for issuance of transportation authorizations. The hydraulically validated volume to be transported is sent back to NABIS in order to perform the transportation authorizations. If the volume matches the requirements all the nominations are approved, otherwise it is necessary to perform a new cut on the additional requirements according to the priorities. Finally, the transportation authorizations are issued and the shippers can log into the NABIS to verify how much gas will be available for them the next day. During the operating day, it is necessary to continuously monitor the state of the transportation system in real time in order to foresee any operational violations that may occur in the future. In this case along with the SCADA System, the real time hydraulic modeling applications come into play; as it allows the operations team to have a clearer picture of the hydraulic state of the pipeline system in real time. Based on the current hydraulic state of the pipeline system, the software allows the operator to launch a predictive hydraulic analysis of the transportation system, for a time frame of his choice, and then to verify the operating parameters in that time fame. Under normal operating conditions, this process does not entail mayor challenges; however, when the pipeline system is operated under conditions close to its maximum capacity it means that a lack of foresight could cause unwanted events that might cause suspensions of deliveries and consequently the breach of the transportation contracts with customers. At the end of the operating day, the cycle has not yet been completed, because the consumption of each of the shippers must be computed and compared with the transportation authorizations recorded in NABIS. This process requires interaction between the SCADA System and NABIS as the first one contains the actual consumption data obtained from the measurement skids associated to the customers. This interaction is done automatically by batch loading processes executed in an hourly and daily manner; thus eliminating the manual work that would be required to perform this process. At the end of the operating day, the daily balance is performed which allows customers to track their consumptions and deviations. Note that the combined use of these software tools can improve the overall daily operations of the transportation system and allow for the monthly balancing process to be performed easily and in a timely manner; and as a result, it yields the correct data allowing the commercial side to perform the invoicing process according to the deadlines. 4.2. Pipeline Expansion Projects The growing demand for Natural Gas and NGL has required performing multiple evaluations of the different alternatives to make way for expansions in order to meet the projected demands by the commercial side. It is for this reason that using an application like the Offline Simulation tools that allows the Operational Planning staff to perform evaluations of the different alternatives in a quick and precise manner; this tool becomes extremely necessary for planning the growth of the Hydrocarbon Transportation System. The result of these evaluations is the best possible alternative to be developed in detail and made a reality in the construction process. Upon completion of the construction, the details must be taken to a new configuration in the Gas and Liquid models of the real time modeling applications; so that the control room team can continue working with as accurate a model of the pipeline system as possible. The importance of updating the Gas and Liquid models lies in that both are a vital part in the operation of the transportation system. For the gas model, as mentioned in the daily operation of gas, it plays an important role in the predictions that can be done on the operating conditions in the near future, which allows for actions to be taken in advance and prevent the occurrence of undesired events; therefore, if not updated, it could significantly reduce the accuracy of the results calculated by the model and as a consequence hinder the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation and even affect its security. On the other hand, the accuracy of the liquids pipeline model is critical to the safe operation of the pipeline, as its main function on this case is the detection and location of leaks in the transportation 3

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 system. Any significant discrepancy between the model and the physical configuration of the pipeline could significantly reduce the system performance and reliability.

5. Improving the decision making process through integration.

As the oil and gas markets become more open and dynamic, pipeline companies are confronted with a challenge: Making operational and commercial decisions in shorter and shorter times, in order to promptly respond to the fast changing needs of the markets. It is true that doing business is about making decisions under uncertain conditions and in this fast paced environment, we simply cant wait to have all the information wed like to make a decision. It is not less true, though, that we should strive to reduce the uncertainties whenever possible, so these decisions have better chances of leading us to positive outcomes. That is precisely what the integration between these systems and of course, people, helps achieve. By building adequate conduits between the applications and presenting the information in ways that are meaningful to each particular team, all the information gathered and produced by these systems becomes much more valuable in their decision making processes.

6. Technology Considerations
The implementation of software tools for specific purposes needs to be part of an overall IT strategy. It is important to keep in mind that businesses today cannot afford to have isolated information silos to address the needs of specific areas. In the process of selecting and implementing software applications it is paramount to understand where their integration points are; where the sources of the information that the application needs to process are and where and to who does the information produced by the system need to go. This means that the selection process needs to go beyond a mere examination of features and functions and the ability to perform a certain particular task and into IT infrastructure requirements such as operational systems, database engines and the like and well into the very design of the application (Was it created for SOA? What other integration means does it provide?). Doing so will make it much easier for the company to build a best in breed type of software infrastructure capable of making critical business and operational data available to different areas within the company in ways that they can relate to and understand. These information systems are also of great importance to create positive experiences in customer service, with minimal additional costs. Some of the information produced by these systems is required and valuable for the customers. In the past, shippers would ask the pipeline companies to produce all kinds of reports, each one of them in slightly different ways or different formats and providing this service used to be a time consuming task for the commercial team. Having the right software tool supporting the commercial processes of the pipeline company also allows for the creation of self-service portals for reports and queries, where customers can securely find the information about their particular contracts and business when they really need it, thus improving their perception of the level of service they are receiving.

7. Contributions to Business
7.1. Technical Contributions The proper use of modeling tools allows pipeline operators to perform predictive and real-time analysis of the behavior of the transportation system. The proper use of business tools allows for the efficient control of the distribution of the transportation capacity of the system and of the consumption by customers. The integration between the operational and business tools can establish a baseline of information systems that facilitates the exchange of information between different areas of the organization, promoting teamwork and allowing each one of them to access relevant and timely information 7.2 Economic Contributions The use of modeling tools can prevent damage to the infrastructure of the transport system and avoid damage to the environment and communities within the catchment area of the transportation system, contributing both to improve the productivity of assets. The use of business tools allow for efficient business management and administration of contracts with customers, reducing the time taken to carry out the nominations and consumption bound to perform billing. 4

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 The integration between modeling applications and business applications allows different areas of the company to share information efficiently, thereby reducing unnecessary redundancies and manual input process information, thus increasing the productivity of work teams.

8. Conclusions
IT - Technology always offers a wider and more comprehensive vision of the business to the different groups across the company; however, what makes the difference is to be able to integrate all the different technologies available within the company in order to present the right information to the right people in the right format. People Even though technology can play a very important role, at the end of the day is the user and the administrator of the technology the ones that can and will materialize the overall projects. Having educated and trained users is fundamental to ensure the success of any initiative related to IT. Understanding the features and capabilities of the tools, as well as its limitations and constrains are key factors to define realistic scopes and achievable goals. Involving the users along the implementation of the projects, getting their feedback, and taking into account their recommendations are also critical factors for the final success of the solutions. In this line, constant and continuous training for these users is always required and recommended to ensure the implemented solution is kept in operation. Maintenance Nowadays maintenance for software applications is not an insurance policy any more. These applications are Mission Critical tools for the company, therefore maintenance is now fundamental to ensure the continuous operation of the business; it also allows users to have access to new releases with new features and new functionalities that improve and enrich the overall operation of the organization. Beyond this factor, the possibility to have full support and assistance to help users maintain the correct operation of these systems. Customer Satisfaction However this perspective has not been considered as one of the main benefits of implementing these applications, it is clearly one of the major improvements that companies achieved thru this process. Being able to confirm nominations accurately and quickly, as well as keep customers informed about their current operational and commercial status represents a tangible value added to the service provided.

In general, implementing this kind of applications requires an important effort and solid commitment from both sides, user and supplier; however the return of investment is always attractive and measurable, factors such as increment in the transportation capacity usage, reduce accounting closing periods, and mainly facilitate the interaction with internal and external customers.

9. About the authors

Martn Claudio Gusukuma is a Systems Engineer from the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas UPC. He has 8 years of experience in the maintenance and administration of diverse SCADA, Automation and Telecommunications systems. He is currently the Responsible of the SCADA Systems of Compaa Operadora de Gas del Amazonas. mgusukuma@coga.com.pe Ren L. Varn is an Electronic Engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia and Specialist in Business Administration with emphasis in Finance from the School of Business Administration (EAN), he also earned an Executive Master of Business Administration at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He has more than fifteen years of experience in Advanced Applications for Pipelines and four years of experience in industrial process control. rvaron@energy-solutions.com Neil E. Vsquez is an Electronic Engineer from the Pontificia Javeriana University in Colombia and has a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) from the Instituto de Empresa (IE) in Madrid, Spain. He has over nine years of experience in Advanced Pipeline Applications and two years of experience in Industrial Processes Control. He is currently the Sales Director for Latin America in Energy solutions, position that he has held for the last two years. nvasquez@energy-solutions.com