SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING END-TO-END MONITORING AND/OR CONTROL OF REMOTE OIL AND GAS PRODUCTION ASSETS

• US 20160010445A1
• Filed: 03/12/2014
• Published: 01/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Powell, William Cameron, Moore, Stephen Trey, Harrison, Matthew
• Granted Patent: US 10,100,629 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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:

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 visualization data to provide data visualizations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises a play network that provides data acquisition functionality for one or more natural resource plays.

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

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

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

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

15. 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.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a control signal from a mobile computing device, the control signal being specific to a field site of a natural resource play; and

transmitting the control signal to the field site over the regional network, wherein at least one component of the field site is responsive to the control signal.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote well site locations comprise a first field site operated by a first field operator and a second field site operated by a second field operator, the second field operator being different from the first field operator.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein field data from each of the first field site and the second field site is transmitted over the regional network to the back-end system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the back-end system transmits respective visualization data to one or more mobile computing devices of the first field operator and one or more mobile computing devices of the second field operator.

5. (canceled)

6. (canceled)

9-14. -14. (canceled)

17. (canceled)

21-23. -23. (canceled)

24. Non-transitory computer-readable storage media 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, from one or more sensors, 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

processing the visualization data to provide data visualizations.

25. The computer-readable storage media of claim 24, wherein the network comprises a play network that provides data acquisition functionality for one or more natural resource plays.

26. The computer-readable storage media of claim 25, wherein the play network comprises one or more ultra-low power (ULP) sub-networks, each ULP sub-network comprising an access point.

27. The computer-readable storage media of claim 26, wherein each ULP sub-network comprises one or more communication devices, each communication device enabling data communication between at least one sensor system and the access point.

28. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a 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, from one or more sensors, 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

processing the visualization data to provide data visualizations.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the network comprises a play network that provides data acquisition functionality for one or more natural resource plays.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the play network comprises one or more ultra-low power (ULP) sub-networks, each ULP sub-network comprising an access point.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein each ULP sub-network comprises one or more communication devices, each communication device enabling data communication between at least one sensor system and the access point.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein each ULP sub-network communicates with an upper-level network based on one or more of cellular communication and satellite communication.