Data flows in the Oil and Gas Industries

For the last thirty or so years accurate flow measurement and analysis has been the key to optimizing the productivity of plant assets in the oil and gas industry.

As technology improved from the late 1970s onward, the flow of oil and gas products became analogous to the flow of data.

Flows of oil and gas through a plant used to be understood by reading values from analog flow meters. Each meter was inspected by an engineer and values recorded. Data such as temperature, pressure and product flow would then be manually entered into a computer for analysis.

Digital flow meters began to replace analog flow meters, which enabled readings to be entered into a model in real-time.

As more digital equipment came online the business gained a better understanding of how the product flowed through a plant.

Sensors could be attached to nearly every asset (things like pipes, valves, and pumps), providing more and more snippets of data and enabling a deeper analysis of the interactions between assets and product flows.

Through interpreting the numerous readings taken at a single point in the plant, rich information could be gleaned about how the product was flowing at that instant.

By expanding this single point into hundreds of thousands of points along the manufacturing process, it was possible to see ripples in the data as the product rippled through the plant.

The flow of data became analogous to the flow of product.

The business started to react and adapt to the changes it saw in the data flow faster than it ever could to changes in product flow.

By linking the model to the commodities markets the real costs/values of flow could be displayed, monitored and trended as dollars per second, rather than the more usual tonnes per hour. Why? So business processes could be optimized around value, and the contribution each asset made to the cost/value of the flow could be evaluated in business (monetary) terms.

The importance of avoiding system down-time became clear.

Data flow is critical today

Today, business resources and IT assets are either providers of data, consumers of data or provide the conduit through which the data can flow.

The flow of data between business assets is the life-blood of every modern organisation.

People provide and consume data daily, as do applications and systems. Hardware and cables act as conduits through which data flows: between desks, through office and corporate networks, across the internet, through deep sea cables and via satellites.

Across all businesses, the equivalents of the pipes, valves, pumps, meters and sensors of the oil and gas industry are the people, hubs, cables, routers, servers, and desktops through which data flows.

Data flow is at the heart of 21st century business. Supporting, processing and optimizing the flow of data are critical to maximizing business performance.

The sole reason for IT's existence is to manage the flow of data.