SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SMART OIL, GAS AND CHEMICAL PROCESS SCHEDULING

• US 20120084110A1
• Filed: 10/03/2011
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: M3 Technology Inc.
• Original Assignee: M3 Technology Inc.
• Inventors: Wu, Lei, Dong, Dong, Jasper, David, Dai, Shaolong
• Application Number:
  US13/252,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084110A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/04 Manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/30 Computing systems specially adapted for manufacturing

Abstract

A system and method support smart scheduling for an oil, gas and chemical process system with a plurality of facility units. A subset of the process facility units can be selected from the plurality of process facility units. A partial scheduling calculation can be performed on the selected subset of process facility units, independently from the rest of the chemical process facility units. A schedule can be calculated for the subset of chemical process facility units, based on the partial scheduling calculation.

Claims

1. A method to support oil, gas and chemical process scheduling, comprising:

allowing a user to select a subset of oil, gas and chemical process facility units from a plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units;

performing a partial scheduling calculation on the selected subset of oil, gas and chemical process facility units independently from the rest of the oil, gas and chemical process facility units.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

allowing each said oil, gas and chemical process facility unit to perform at least one job functionality of;

crude receipt and crude feeding,

intermediate unit operation, and

product blending and lifting.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

allowing the partial scheduling calculation to be one of;

a dock scheduling calculation,

a crude scheduling calculation,

a plant scheduling calculation, and

a fuels scheduling calculation

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing a full scheduling calculation on the plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

basing the partial scheduling calculation on the select subset of facility units on a result set from a full scheduling calculation on the plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

keeping a group of setting for the user.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

connecting to a web server that maintains information on the plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units and a plurality of users.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

allowing another user to select another subset of oil, gas and chemical process facility units from a plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units;

performing, in parallel, another partial scheduling calculation on the another selected subset of facility units independently from the rest of the oil, gas and chemical process facility units.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

allowing the partial scheduling calculation to be a crude scheduling calculation; and

allowing the another partial scheduling calculation to be a product blending and lifting scheduling calculation.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

using a flowsheet that represents manufacturing or production process as a collection of icons.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

maintaining a data model based on feedback from one or more users.

12. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

providing instant feedback to the user with information on inventories, product qualities, and constraint violations after scheduling change.

13. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

using a chart filtering that allows the user to focus on one or more vital activities on the selected subset of chemical process facility units

14. A machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed cause a system to:

allow a user to select a subset of oil, gas and chemical process facility units from a plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units;

perform a partial scheduling calculation on the selected subset of oil, gas and chemical process facility units independently from the rest of the oil, gas and chemical process facility units.

15. A method to support oil, gas and chemical process scheduling, comprising:

a business data layer like web server that maintains information on a plurality of oil, gas and chemical process facility units and a plurality of users; and

a plurality of scheduling terminals, wherein each said terminal

allows a user to select a subset of oil, gas and chemical process facility units from the plurality of chemical process facility units, and

performs a partial scheduling calculation on the selected subset of chemical process facility units independently from the rest of the oil, gas and chemical process facility units.