Systems and methods for providing end-to-end monitoring and/or control of remote oil and gas production assets

• US 10,100,629 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2014
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Harrison, Matthew, Powell, William Cameron, Moore, Stephen Trey
• Primary Examiner(s): Cassity, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Collins, Gary
• Application Number:
  US14/770,917
• Publication Number:
  US 20160010445A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 47/00 Survey of boreholes or wells monitoring pressure or flow of drilling fluid E21B21/08
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/406 characterised by monitoring or safety G05B19/19 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/40573 Isee integrated sensor, end effector, camera, proximity, gas, temperature, force
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information

Abstract

Implementations are directed to remote data aggregation, data management, and data visualization of field data from remote field site locations. Actions can include generating, by one or more sensors, the field data, each sensor of the one or more sensors being responsive to field site activity, transmitting, through a regional network, the field data to a back-end system, processing, by the back-end system, the field data to provide visualization data, transmitting the visualization data to one or more mobile computing devices, and providing a computer-executable application for execution on a mobile computing device, the computer-executable application processing the visualization data to provide data visualizations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for remote data aggregation, data management, and data visualization of field data from remote field site locations, the method being executed using one or more processors and comprising:

transmitting, through a first regional network to a back-end system,

first field data received from a first set of sensors that are responsive to field site activity at a first well-site, of a group of well-sites;

transmitting, through a second regional network to the back-end system, second field data received from a second set of sensors that are responsive to field site activity at a second well-site of the group of well-sites;

processing, by the back-end system, the first field data to provide first visualization data associated with the first well-site;

processing, by the back-end system, the second field data to provide second visualization data associated with the second well-site;

identifying, by the back-end system, a first computing device associated with an operator of the first well-site and a second computing device associated with an operator of the second well-site;

providing, for display, the first visualization data to the first computing device and the second visualization data to the second computing device;

receiving, from the first computing device, a control signal to remotely operate an asset at the group of well-sites; and

transmitting, by the back-end system, the control signal to the asset at the group of well-sites;

wherein the first visualization data provides data for a local view and the second visualization data provides data for a regional view, the local view being part of the regional view.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first regional network is a play network that provides data acquisition functionality for the first well-site, wherein the first well-site comprises an industrial site for extracting natural resources and the play network comprises a network of sensors coupled to equipment at the industrial site.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the play network comprises one or more sub-networks, each sub-network comprising an access point.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each sub-network comprises one or more communication devices, each communication device enabling data communication between at least one sensor system and the access point.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein each sub-network communicates with an upper-level network based on one or more of cellular communication and satellite communication.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the play network comprises one or more wireless sub-networks, each wireless sub-network comprising a gateway.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors comprise one or more sensors from a group comprising a temperature sensor, a flow rate sensor, a pressure sensor, a hazardous gas sensor, a fluid-level sensor, a regulated gas sensor, a component integrity sensor, an air quality sensor, an asset tracking sensor (e.g., RFID), and a component failure sensor.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the back-end system, a particular well-site where the asset is located,

wherein the control signal is being transmitted to the particular well-site, and

wherein at least one component of the particular well-site is responsive to the control signal.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the particular well-site is identified from an index that maps the first computing device to one or more assets, each asset of the one or more assets being at a well-site of the group of well-sites.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device and the second computing device are identified from an index, the index is configured to map data received from one or more well-site sensors to computing devices associated with one or more well-site operators.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the index comprises of one or more control levels associated with the one or more well-site operators, wherein the first visualization data is provided at least partly based on a control level of the operator of the first well-site.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving first field data from a first set of sensors through a first regional network, the first field data being generated by the first set of sensors responsive to field site activity at a first well-site;

receiving through a second regional network second field data from a second set of sensors that are responsive to field site activity at a second well-site;

processing the first field data to provide first visualization data associated with the first well-site;

processing the second field data to provide second visualization data associated with the second well-site;

identifying a first computing device associated with an operator of the first well-site and a second computing device associated with an operator of the second well-site;

providing, for display, the first visualization data to the first computing device and the second visualization data to the second computing device;

receiving, from the first computing device, a control signal to remotely operate an asset at the first well-site; and

transmitting the control signal to the asset at the first well-site.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the first regional network is a play network that provides data acquisition functionality for the first well-site, wherein the first well-site comprises an industrial site for extracting natural resources and the play network comprises a network of sensors coupled to equipment at the industrial site.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the play network comprises one or more sub-networks, each sub-network comprising an access point.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein each sub-network comprises one or more communication devices, each communication device enabling data communication between at least one sensor system and the access point.

16. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in communication with the one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, first field data from a first set of sensors through a first regional network, the first field data being, generated by the first set of sensors, responsive to field site activity at a first well-site;

receiving through a second regional network second field data from a second set of sensors that are responsive to field site activity at a second well-site;

processing, the first field data to provide first visualization data associated with the first well-site;

processing the second field data to provide second visualization data associated with the second well-site;

identifying a first computing device associated with an operator of the first well-site and a second computing device associated with an operator of the second well-site;

providing, for display, the first visualization data to the first computing device and the second visualization data to the second computing device;

receiving, from the first computing device, a control signal to remotely operate an asset at the first well-site; and

transmitting the control signal to the asset at the first well-site.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first regional network is a play network that provides data acquisition functionality for the first well-site, wherein the first well-site comprises an industrial site for extracting natural resources and the play network comprises a network of sensors coupled to equipment at the industrial site.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the play network comprises one or more sub-networks, each sub-network comprising an access point.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein each sub-network comprises one or more communication devices, each communication device enabling data communication between at least one sensor system and the access point.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein each sub-network communicates with an upper-level network based on one or more of cellular communication and satellite communication.