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NLNG Calls for EoI & Pre-qual for Supply Chain Management Services

Section: Advertorial, Tenders · January 24, 2023 · 1 comment |

TENDER/ADVERTORIAL

This is not an invitation to tender. The full tendering procedure will be provided to applicants that are successful in the pre-qualification exercise…

Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) requires a vendor to provide Supply Chain Management Services (SCMS) to support maintenance and production activities in its Plants in Bonny, Rivers State, Nigeria.

The company hereby invites SCMS providers with all requisite experience, capacity and regulatory permits & licences to express their interest to participate in the tendering for this service.

SCOPE OF THE SERVICE

The Supply Chain Management Services required will include but are not limited to the provision of:

Procurement Management services
Contract Administration and Management services
Inventory Control and Stock Management services
Material Management services including Material Handling, Packaging for Export, Heavy Goods Vehide/Forklift Services, Stock Check, Material Preservation & Quality Control
Vendor Management services

COMMENCEMENT AND DURATION

The expected date of commencement of the service is 1st February 2024 and the duration will be three (3) years with an option to extend at NLNG’s sole discretion.

PRE- QUALIFICATION

A pre-qualification exercise of interested SCMS providers will be carried out and only successful applicants will be invited to provide a competitive tender for this service.

To be considered for pre-qualification, interested companies are required to submit the following documents for consideration:

Valid Certificate of Incorporation and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) Forms 2A & 7A (or its equivalent).
Tax Clearance Certificates for the past three (3) years i.e., 2019 – 2021 and Nigerian Tax Registration/ldentification Number.
Details of relevant verifiable experience of SCMS provision that has been undertaken as main contractor over the past five (5) years.
Valid Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA)/DPR permit(s).
Valid Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment Recruiter’s licence
Acknowledgment of willingness to undergo NLNG and Third-Party audits.
Confirmation of willingness to operate in strict accordance with the NLNG Business Principles.
Any additional information that will enhance the potential of the company

NIGERIAN CONTENT

NLNG is committed to the development of the Nigerian Oil and Gas business in accordance with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010 (NOGICD Act).

Interested companies must comply with all the provisions of the NOGICD Act that relate to this service and in particular comply with the minimum Nigerian content percentage for ownership (i.e., 51% and above) and in relation to the scopes of service as provided in the Schedule to the NOGICD Act 2010.

Failure to fully comply with the NOGICD Act 2010 or demonstrate commitment to Nigerian content development policy of the Federal Government of Nigeria and NLNG shall result in outright disqualification from the tender process for this scope of services as described above.

As part of their submissions, companies signifying interest by responding to this advertisement shall submit acknowledgement of willingness to comply with the Nigerian Content Act.

General Nigerian Content Requirements

Companies responding to this advertisement are required to submit the following in compliance with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010:

Documentation to demonstrate that the entity is a Nigerian-registered company. Submission of certified true copies of CAC Forms 2A & 7A (or its equivalent) including company Memorandum and Article of Association. All companies shall be Nigerian Indigenous Service Companies having 51% and above Nigerian equity in the shareholding and ownership structure of tenderer’s legally registered entity in Nigeria by CAMA (Companies and Allied Matters Act).
Evidence of registration on the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) NOGIC Joint Qualification System (JQS).
Evidence of valid Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate (NCEC) in the relevant category.
The process and procedure that explain the methodology of how it intends to comply with the requirements of the NOGICD Act 2010 (Nigerian Content Plan) and how to achieve the set target(s) in the schedule of the NOGICD Act and any targets set by the Board.
Details of the company’s corporate organisations overall Human Resources structure (management, supervisors, senior and junior skilled officers, etc.), identifying positions manned/occupied by Nigerian nationals with evidence of type of employment in-country and identifying the positions manned/occupied by other nationals.
Proposed organogram for this work scope populated with nationality, qualifications of personnel and years of experience of personnel on the job (attach CV of key finance, operational and technical personnel) including a succession plan in this work scope.
A detailed description of the location of facilities and infrastructure (assets, equipment, technical office, and administrative space, storage, etc.) in Nigeria to support this contract, evidence that 50% of all equipment deployed to work by multinational and international companies are owned by the local subsidiaries.

SUBMISSION OF RESPONSES

Submissions in response to the above requirements shall be completed strictly in accordance with the instructions given in this publication, segregated and arranged in the order indicated.

Failure to submit any of the documents may result in the disqualification of the applicant.

The Expression of Interest document should be submitted:

In electronic copy in PDF format by e-mail to: eoi.scms@nlng.com with “CONFIDENTIAL Expression of Interest and pre-Qualification for Provision of Supply Chain Management Services (SCMS) for Nigeria LNG Limited” in the

subject line.

The submission must be received by NLNG no later than 16th February 2023. Please Note:

This is not an invitation to tender. The full tendering procedure will be provided to applicants that are successful in the pre-qualification exercise which will be carried out in accordance with NLNG’s relevant procedures.
Notwithstanding the submission of an Expression of Interest, NLNG is neither committed nor obliged to indude any company and/or its associated companies, agents or subcontractors on any bid list or award any form of contract to any company and/or its associated companies, agents or sub-contradors.
This advertisement for Expression of Interest and Pre-qualification shall not be construed as a commitment by NLNG, nor shall it entitle respondents to daim any indemnity from NLNG or its affiliates by virtue of having responded to this advertisement.
This Expression of Interest is a simple invitation for interested vendors to express interest in providing the indicated services and does not warrant any further feedback from NLNG hereafter.
If you do not hear from NLNG within 3 months of submission of this publication, it should be taken that your application was not successful.

Signed:

MANAGEMENT

Nigeria LNG Limited

BRADE: We Place a Premium on our Values

Section: Advertorial · October 23, 2020 · 1 comment |

PARTNER CONTENT

The legacy transformation of BRADEAFRICA from a consulting company to a group of companies with interests in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda is largely due to the premium the company places on its values and human capital. “Our organizational values describes our core principles.” For any institution such as the family unit to be enduring, core values such as integrity, reliability, respect, safety and creativity, must be closely knit. “This is the philosophy behind the recent overhaul of our logo, as this points towards our growth and our strategic improvement plans to maximize shareholder values,” Horace Enemugwem, Business Development Manager for BRADE says in a recent interview with the Africa Oil+Gas Report.

Excerpts:

AOGR: Three years ago or thereabouts BRADE was at the verge of breaking into the Ghanaian industry. It eventually did after overcoming various government-imposed challenges such as the delay in getting the Petroleum Commission Permit. It then organized a synergized training secession between its Nigerian and Ghanaian staff to boost business development. Today, the reality of COVID-19 is with us. How would you say those training have impacted the BRADE business during this period?

BRADE: The 2016/2017 local and foreign trainings for BRADE staff in Ghana and Nigeria was very impactful. We achieved several benefits from the trainings, including enhancement of our capacity to deliver quality services, improvement of our work-culture and development of teamwork & leadership skills among our staff. Now, we do not just do things right, we get it right the first time and every time. We have followed up those trainings with even more in Europe and North America. And the later have facilitated business opportunities and strategic alliances with key OEM’s in Europe and the Americas.

The leadership skills acquired from the trainings aided our business focus and resilience through the pandemic. We are hopeful that other values gathered from the trainings will be utilized as upstream activities pick up in 2021. In this regard, we executed some Engineering projects in 2018 and 2019 for international clients

AOGR: Is Uganda still a big deal for you? How so?

BRADE: Yes, Uganda is still a big deal for us. Uganda is a developing market, with several opportunities and a huge growth potential. We are aware of the major developmental projects coming up in the Oil & Gas industry in Uganda and BRADE is well positioned to participate locally, with a team of experienced professionals and our investments in technology and knowledge transfer. We recently participated in two major tender opportunities for the development of Tilenga Upstream Project for Total E&P. We have received some interests to partner with globally renowned OEMs to deliver projects for Lake Albert development. Hopefully things will move quicker now with a clear plan to take FID after the tax issues between Uganda and the IOCs were resolved.

AOGR: Let‘s talk about why BRADE rebrands. What is the philosophy behind the overhaul of your logo and name? I mean, I knew you first as BRADE Consulting, then BRADE West Africa and now BRADE Africa. Should we expect any more changes in your identity or is this the real deal?

BRADE: The philosophy behind the overhaul of our logo points towards our growth, the premium we place on our values (integrity, reliability, respect, safety and creativity, all qualities that are synonymous with an enduring institution: the family unit) and our strategic improvement plans to maximize shareholder values. Our new visual language is bolder, more colorful, modern, clearer and simpler.

We commenced operation, from inception as a company (BRADE Consulting Limited) and grew into a group of companies (e.g BRADE West Africa Ghana), with interests in the Ghanaian Market and then BRADE Oil & Gas Uganda, to service the nascent industry in Uganda and Eastern Africa. BRADE has grown into an emerging African conglomerate based in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda with business interests and operations across Africa. The Group’s activities span petroleum and energy services, manufacturing, consulting services and chemical solutions. Our new brand identity marks the start of a new era for BRADE Group, and it will not be changed soon.

AOGR: The BRADE Legacy is something I find very interesting. Could it be part of the reason you added the red tinge to your new logo?

BRADE: Yes. The red tinge was added to our new logo, as a visual depiction of the premium we place on our values as mentioned earlier. This ties into the BRADE Legacy. Our new logo is modern, clearer, and simpler. In the new logo, a new red tone has now been added to the letter “A” in the brand name.

AOGR: Why should anyone care about BRADE Africa aside from the legacy you are trying to build?

BRADE: Asides the legacy, BRADE is proudly African with 100% globally experienced indigenous workforce. At BRADE, we do not just do things right, we get it right the first time and every time. That is something people should care about.

AOGR: I know BRADE prides itself with having hands-on technical and management staff that are industry certified. When it comes to well engineering, what are your main strengths?

BRADE: Our main strengths in Well Engineering lies in our highly trained and experienced well-engineering team, ability to deliver well-engineering projects to budget and schedule, good relationship with our clients and our excellent work ethics. We deploy our best personnel and technology on every project to provide innovative solutions to technical challenges and improve the performance and economics of our Client’s assets of operators. We design cost-effective wells that deliver value to shareholders.

AOGR: What helped you manage the effects of COVID-19 and how do you intend to reinvent yourself post COVID-19?

BRADE: Our diversity. Although most of our contracted opportunities were suspended, our diversity and business interests helped us sustain cashflow and kept us busy in other service offerings. We have learnt a lot from the pandemic – and presently, we have equipped our offices with upgraded IT infrastructure to support “Work From Home.”

AOGR: What projects are you currently working on in Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda if any?

BRADE: We have two ongoing contracts with SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria. We are also in the beginning stages of 2 additional field development projects in Nigeria.

Several other contracted projects have been suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic and the decline of upstream activities due to the low price of crude. Hence, we are not part of any project in Ghana at this time. Uganda should come into play in terms of projects, once we succeed in the current “Tendering” stage.

AOGR: What future plans do you have in the pipeline for expansion beyond your current operating locations in Africa?

BRADE: Our current operating locations are strategic, for easy deployment of our services and products across the sub-Saharan region in Africa. Our current operating locations also serve as launching terminals for deployment of resources and solutions for projects in nearby countries. Our plan is to consolidate and grow our operations across our existing locations, in preparation for resumption of upstream Oil & Gas activities in 2021 and beyond.

The Nigerian Oil & Gas industry promises a flurry of activities in the short term, say 6 months to 18 months. We are prepared for that. Realise that the Nigerian Oil & Gas space is quite large, when compared to any of the markets we currently play today.

AOGR: Finally, the call right now seems to be for renewables! In fact, some governments of the world have been taking proactive steps to move away from fossil fuels, the natural resource that Africa depends on heavily for its sustenance. Do you see this impacting the BRADE bottom-line in the next 10 years for instance?

BRADE: Truly, the world is shifting towards a more diversified energy mix to achieve net-zero emissions and a lot of support is being given to renewables at the moment. The argument out there is that what we need is a supplementary source of energy and not a total elimination of pre-existing source which is fossil fuel. Efforts are being made to make fossil fuel cleaner and environmentally friendly hence it will remain dominant for the next 30-plus years to provide the supply needed by the global demand.

Having said the above, we have our thinking caps on. Our Consulting arm is actively working on this. Let’s just say it is still early to let the cat out of the bag on our plans.

EUNISELL CREATES NEW BUSINESS MODEL FOR OIL COMPANIES, OVERCOMES DEVELOPMENT FINANCE BARRIERS FOR NOCs

Section: Advertorial, Paid Post · October 17, 2020 · No comments |

PARTNER CONTENT

Eunisell Production Solutions has pioneered a new business model, enabling NOCs to realise their development goals and bring their fields up to optimum operating potential, without relying on external investment.

The delay between when the blocks are awarded and when development commences, is a tangible concern for any investor or financial institution. Obstacles to the execution of development plans for these assets has indicated an insecurity of when a return on investment might be achieved, thus uncertainty and reluctance are created.

To solve the challenge, Eunisell delivers four key business benefits: 1. Faster delivery of first oil revenues. 2. Enhanced production from proven fields. 3. Engineered solutions for long term development and 4, Innovative technology.

NOCs are already reeling from the impact of Covid-19 on the industry and depressed oil prices. This means that owners will continue struggle to finance the development of their fields. Any financial assistance in that scenario would be limited at best and come at a heavy cost.

Added pressure comes from Government where owners are expected to deliver on the agreed development and output or risk losing their concessions as witnessed in recent times with the cancellation of 11 operators’ licenses. With the economic and global status quo, options are limited, if any, and this is why Eunisell has stepped in. Eunisell has been providing services based on experience, technology, economics and now, business innovation, to assist NOCs to develop their fields profitably over a measured period.

Service companies are able to design and deliver EPCC projects that will provide long term production and income for the NOCs. The problem is that these projects are inherently costly and require large payments at numerous milestones before production is actually achieved. The procurement and construction phases of these projects are extremely capital intensive and protracted.

By providing solutions, there is a positive impact on Nigeria’s GDP in addition. More oil yielded by NOCs translates into additional national revenues. Having large potential reserves not being produced, simply because a way cannot be found to bring the needed investment, facilities and technology to operators, is a negative influence on our industry, and Nigeria’s economy.

Each one of these assets or the assets currently included in the Marginal Field Bid Round that can be brought to production and developed to its full potential, represents significant increments to foreign exchange and taxes for government. Furthermore, there’s increased employment, community development and growth for the local economies.

The positive effect of bringing these fields to potential is enormous for all levels of the economy. Eunisell is in effect, acting as a technical partner, engineering and delivering the means to bring the existing production to market rapidly, generating revenue and enabling further development.

Compared to existing EPCC projects, Eunisell’s solution requires only a relatively minimal initial cost and is delivered in weeks rather than months. This immediate approach enables concurrent development of the asset. Eunisell will design and deliver the fit-for-purpose production management project, leaving operators to concentrate on long-term production expansion plans.

By working with the field owner, Eunisell assures that the solution provided serves not only short-term output yields, but is designed to meet the field’s expected potential and beyond. By providing the technical solutions and funding the development through rapid delivery of production, the capital required for field development is reduced to manageable levels. Further, the return on the original capital investment is achieved in a significantly shorter period of time.

With Eunisell’s model for success, we are using production costs to partner with the operators to develop the asset. And with Eunisell’s production enhancement and production delivery capacities, these costs can be further reduced to make depressed oil prices viable and enable funding development of Nigerian assets for the benefit of all.

Eunisell Production Solutions

www.eunisellproduction.com

info@eunisell.com

+234 908 765 9938

Welltec Solves Geothermal Problems with Oil Industry Technology

Section: Advertorial, Paid Post · October 13, 2020 · No comments |

Welltec, the Denmark headquartered oil service provider, says that the cleaning tools it manufactures have proven highly successful during testing for something other than oil wells: geothermal well cleaning applications.

The Well Miller® has capabilities for:
–          Silica removal – a common cause of geothermal production issues
–          Rigless intervention
–          Minimal footprint – lightweight yet high capacity tools
–          Saving time and money through fast

The Well Miller Reverse Circulating Bit (RCB) is a combinable milling tool enabling the simultaneous milling, break-up, and extraction of scale. The RCB also features a turbine section allowing well fluid to be circulated through the milling bit, and for any cuttings or debris to be collected into bailer chambers for later recovery once tools are rigged down at surface.

In testing, the RCB was run against a cured blend of silica pieces (Si02), sand, and epoxy resin, to replicate the most challenging silica clean-out scenario found in a geothermal setting.

“Not only was the removal of the silica replicant compound successful, the mill bit showed almost no signs of wear, thanks to highly resistant Tungsten Carbide milling teeth”, Welltec reports I a case study.

Overcoming Challenges

Welltec says it is already helping clients with geothermal well construction by providing the Welltec Annular Barrier (WAB®) for zonal isolation – a life of well solution.

“In terms of maintenance and intervention, Silica scale is one of the main flow production issues found in Geothermal wells. In particular, the challenge faced with this type of material stems from its strength and high level of resistance, making it incredibly difficult to mill through”, the company explains.

Geothermal Potential

Welltec believes that Geothermal energy offers the highest capacity energy form within the renewables market. ”With the ongoing development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), the future potential is further expanded and can help to facilitate an even more efficient and sustainable way to harness the Earth’s natural energy source,” the company declares on its website.

Collaboration in the Field

Welltec continues to collaborate with industry experts and provide technology for research projects with allocated funding from the U.S. Department of Energy. In a project led by the University of Oklahoma and Veizades & Associates, Welltec will be testing its latest Welltec Annular Barrier (WAB) in multiple zones of interest at the Coso Geothermal Field, California.The WAB will be applied to achieve zonal isolation and improve mass flow through stimulation in a high temperature environment.

Academic contribution

Welltec has recently co-authored an academic paper with Energy Development Corporation (EDC) of the Philippines, presenting highly successful well repair operations from the field. The paper highlights the benefits of repairing wells to re-establish production rather than abandoning them for new ones– in doing so, the WAB can prevent casing collapse and deformation caused by trapped water.

The case will be presented at the 42nd New Zealand Geothermal Workshop on 24-26 November, 2020.

Africa E&P Virtual Summit: Africa’s Online Oil, Gas & Energy Event

Section: Advertorial, Events · September 15, 2020 · No comments |

Don’t miss Africa’s only real online oil, gas & energy event of the year! A real conference & expo, with real networking – the Africa E&P Virtual Summit will deliver the best opportunity of 2020 to connect with Africa’s oil and gas leaders, governments & decision makers. Namibia, Liberia and Ghana are set to share their latest and most exciting oil and gas developments in a series of dedicated roundtable discussions, showcasing hydrocarbon potentials and investment opportunities. You will also hear from 50 industry leaders who will deliver quality content on Africa’s petroleum sector through sessions and main-stage keynotes. Day 1 will end with an interactive wine tasting event, live from Cape Town, where you can make the most of the platform’s networking functions. The closing ceremony of the Africa E&P Virtual Summit will end with Frontier’s renown Big Five Board Awards, which will be presented by the winner of last year’s Africa Oil Legend Award, Patrick Pouyanné, CEO & Chairman of Total.

Africa E&P Virtual Summit delivers…
• 7 Governments and 50 Speakers Now Confirmed
• Liberia Harper Basin License Round Update
• Face-to-Face Networking within Africa’s oil and gas community
• One-to-One Business Meetings
• Africa Oil and Gas License Round Promotions
• Access to Virtual Exhibition
• Interactions with Clients
• Access to Private Meeting Rooms
• Round Table Discussions

See the full agenda and book tickets >> https://www.frontierenergy.network/africa-ep-virtual-summit-2020-overview
(Governments & NOC’s can use discount code ** 50gOvUp ** at checkout)

Danite Limited: Making E&P Field Development Affordable

Section: Advertorial, Paid Post · September 3, 2020 · 1 comment |

PARTNER CONTENT

As multinational oil and gas companies (the IOCs) divest their interests in mostly onshore ventures in the Gulf of Guinea, new local E&P companies emerge, taking advantage of the divested interests. In many cases these new local ventures underestimate the challenge of maintaining production at inherited levels, and of developing and pursuing growth plans. Danite Limited recognises these challenges and seeks to support these private firms in a cost-effective way. We see the key challenges as follows:

Executive Steering:

Entrepreneurs that are new to the E&P sector often struggle with the time frame for making returns on their investment. An investor in the downstream oil and gas sector is basically a trader. The most critical success factors in that sector are: (a) A safe and efficient supply and distribution system that keeps costs really low (in view of the razor-thin profit margins), and (b) Attractive retail outlets which consumers would want to patronise. If the investor gets these things right in the downstream, he should be fine.

However, the upstream is a totally different ball game. The most critical success factors are (a) Technology, and (b) Safety and Environment. Drilling a couple of dry wells can sink the business. A few years ago, one multinational company drilled two dry wells offshore Nigeria at a total cost of almost US$200m and that was the end of its venture in the country. On safety and the environment, we have read of some of the world’s worst disasters in the Gulf of Mexico and how respected multinational companies have paid very dearly in both human lives, money and reputation.

Danite Limited seeks to support new investors into the industry by helping them understand the investment journey so they can manage their expectations, and by giving them sound steers as they embark on their first field developments. Sometimes, if they so request, we can provide a project manager who would work with the client’s resources to deliver successful projects.

Resourcing:

There is the immediate challenge of technical resourcing due to the dearth of capable technical manpower in the country. The newcomers typically seek to attract experienced technical resources from the IOCs. They soon find out that these technical experts sometimes with decades of experience would not easily leave their current employers with all the stability associated with IOCs, to join newcomers where a lot more is required of them, and with all the uncertainty of what lies ahead. Despite this challenge, with enough carrots, the newcomers do manage to attract some experienced technical resources. Often, these are resources that are close to normal retirement from the multinationals and so have little to lose by retiring early. But the future of the business cannot hinge on senior retired professionals – the newcomers need to invest in some inexperienced resources – typically graduates of technical disciplines – who can be developed very rapidly to be productive. Danite Limited offers to help develop such rookies through training programmes offered by industry veterans. Within a few weeks of employment, young graduates would be able to deliver real useable work that add value.

Affordable Software Tools:

There are well-known big names in the industry when it comes to software tools. For example, when you talk of process simulation, Aspen’s HYSIS is the industry standard. For pipeline studies, you speak of PipeSim – a Schlumberger product. These products have deservedly made their name from the patronage of the industry heavyweight operators. This has fuelled astronomical prices of these products, often beyond affordability of a new entrant into the business. However, from a technical standpoint, these software tools are based on well-known engineering principles, formulae and correlations, and their functionality can be replicated by much more affordable alternatives. This is the concept Danite Limited promotes – Provide useable tools without the mega-prices of the big names. For example, Danite’s RaffloLive (https://rafflolive.com) is a perfect solution for carrying out flow assurance studies of pipelines such as are encountered in the oil and gas fields. RaffloLive is the online version of what used to be a PC-based software called Rafflo, developed in the eighties by the current CEO of Danite Limited. After rigorous testing and validation, Rafflo was adopted by one of the leading IOCs in Nigeria as the official tool for pipeline flow assurance studies. That IOC used Rafflo for 13 years until the company received a directive from its headquarters to only use global industry software. Retaining the core Rafflo engine, Danite has re-created it into RaffloLive – a full on-line application that only requires a web browser to run. It does not require anything to be installed on the user’s device as everything is online. Even an Android tab or an iPad can be used to simulate huge pipeline networks with RaffloLive. It is offered by subscription only. However, participants at our training course on Pipeline Planning and Design automatically receive a 30-day license that enables them carry out hands-on exercises.

Field Development Planning:

The seeds of failure of many failed E&P projects are sown at the development planning stage. At this stage, you need your most experienced professionals who, working as an integrated team of surface and subsurface professionals, with other supporting disciplines like Safety, Environment and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), would develop optimal concepts. Danite Limited offers this service.

The CEO:

Dr Raphael Sunday Awoseyin founded Danite Limited. He has four decades experience in the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry, covering project management, facilities engineering, maintenance and management of oil and gas production facilities, processing and distribution, process re-engineering and business process integration. He has led formulation of standards, business processes and procedures for upstart E&P companies and championed skills and career development planning for thousands of operations

personnel. He led implementation of SAP (ERP system) for the largest Shell E&P company in the world.

He holds a First-Class BSc (Hons) degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Greenwich, London and a PhD, also in Mechanical Engineering, specialising in Pipeline Hydraulics. He is a graduate of IMD (Lausanne) Program for Executive Development and of Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) Executive Development Program. He is a Master of Business Process Re-engineering.

Digital Transformation in Oil & Gas—How to Choose the Right Partners?

Section: Advertorial, Paid Post · July 21, 2020 · No comments |

PAID POST

Low oil prices, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic, are putting pressure on oil and gas companies to reduce operational costs through efficiency and optimization. There is only a limited number of ways to achieve this — by downsizing, reducing production, or implementing digital transformation. While a quick fix, downsizing and production reduction are not sustainable solutions. As such, more and more oil and gas companies are looking at the strategic advantages of digital transformation, driven by cloud computing, Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Digitization: A Must for the Oil and Gas Industry

According to Accenture Technology Vision 2019, of the 168 oil and gas executives surveyed, 85% from upstream and 90% from downstream companies said that they were currently implementing one or more of the following technologies: Distributed Ledger Technology, AI, Extended Reality, and Quantum Computing (DARQ).

In recent years, most large oil and gas companies have increased investment in digital transformation. Internationally, large multinationals have launched their own digital and intelligent oilfield construction plans, such as the Digital Oilfield by ExxonMobil, Integrated Development by ConocoPhillips, Smart-Field by Royal Dutch Shell, I-Field by Chevron, and E-Field by BP.

Chinese enterprises have also been actively implementing new digital strategies in the industry. China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has built an exploration and production cloud platform, as well as over 50 digital management systems, including exploration and development, refinery and chemical engineering, and service support, among others. Sinopec has set up three digital platforms for operation management, production operation, as well as information infrastructure and O&M. In addition, it has built several technology-driven solutions, such as ProMACE, smart factory, Chememall, and Epec. At the same time, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) is developing on-going plans for intelligent oilfields. It has successfully built unmanned platforms, and has piloted multiple projects on intelligent exploration, oil production, asset management, and drilling and completion.

Oil and gas companies are rapidly investing in digital and intelligent projects to improve exploration and development efficiency and reduce production costs. Ultimately, the industry looks to seize the opportunities that digital transformation has to offer.

A Difficult Road to Digital Transformation

Each upstream enterprise progresses at a different pace during digital transformation. Various companies in the oil and gas industry have achieved different levels of development in data monitoring and collection, device networking, data analysis, and predictive maintenance; the industry overall has had some success in these domains. However, the further the industry transforms digitally, the more challenges it faces.

Zhang Tiegang, former Deputy Chief Engineer of Daqing Oilfield Exploration and Development Research Institute, introduced the three key pain points in the digital transformation of the oil and gas industry at the Huawei Oil and Gas Virtual Summit 2020 held on July 15.

Massive Data Growth

Compared with other industries, oil and gas manages an even larger amount of data. For example, the amount of seismic data is increasing at an unprecedented speed. As oil and gas exploration becomes more difficult, the process requires more precise seismic wave exploration techniques. Broadband, wide-azimuth, and high-density (BWH) seismic data collection is particularly important, amounting to nearly 1 TB/km². The exploration area is constantly expanding and the originally collected high-resolution seismic data in just a single work area may amount to over 17 TB. In addition, the continuous increase in historical data records further speeds up data growth.

Increased Computation Workload and Complexity

The ever-increasing data volume leads to a sharp increase in the computation workload. For example, the computation workload of pre-stack reverse time migration (RTM) and storage volume are 10 and 50 times higher than before, respectively. To ensure comprehensive and accurate understanding of oilfield production dynamics, the computation requirements of large-scale reservoir numerical simulation also increase significantly. Therefore, oilfield companies have increasingly high requirements on data processing technologies. More and more complex algorithms — such as anisotropic pre-stack depth imaging, RTM, and full waveform inversion (FWI) — also pose higher requirements on computational capabilities.

Weak Information Infrastructure

Equipment rooms, computing, storage, and IT O&M constitute the information infrastructure system of oil and gas enterprises. Most companies used to build their own, resulting in many equipment rooms with high energy consumption and low security. At the same time, low server configuration and utilization are no longer able to meet the requirements of massive data processing. In addition, the existing shared storage devices come from different providers and feature low capacity, unable to store massive data. Moreover, O&M departments face increasing pressure to hire highly skilled personnel to ensure the O&M of independent and scattered IT with a poor intelligence level.

Partnership Can Help Oil & Gas Streamline Digital Transformation — Who Will the Partners Be?

The digital transformation of oil and gas enterprises is a huge systematic undertaking. Therefore, technical support from IT companies is indispensable.

Partnership Between Oil and Gas Enterprises and IT Companies (Some Cases)

Every large oil company has chosen to form partnerships for digital transformation. In this case, IT companies provide oil and gas enterprises with comprehensive digital solutions by using advanced technologies such as AI, big data, and cloud computing.

Take the partnership between Huawei and Daqing Oilfield Company as an example. Cloudification is key for digital transformation. However, data, computing, and facilities present serious challenges. To address these, Daqing Oilfield Company cooperated with Huawei to build a cloud data center, achieving an elastic supply of IT resources. The computing power of the data center now reaches 1,000 trillion FLOPS — a 300% increase in efficiency. Thanks to the elastic supply of computing and storage resources, the acquisition period has been reduced from three days to three hours. At the same time, servers with super computing power and the cloud-based deployment environment optimize data processing by 3 to 10 times. To achieve this, production data is transmitted to the cloud center through the high-speed dedicated network for processing. The calculation results are automatically sent back to the data center for archiving and management, ensuring the security of the core oilfield data.

In addition, Huawei has developed multiple technical service capabilities for oilfield digitization by using technologies such as AI, big data, and 5G. By deploying HUAWEI CLOUD, SONATRACH (Algeria) has successfully transitioned to cloud-based IT by deploying a company-wide ERP system. With AI, big data, and industrial IoT technologies, Huawei has built a fault prediction model for predictive maintenance of pumping units. Huawei has also built the largest industrial 5G oilfield lab in Europe’s biggest oil refinery, as well as implemented future-oriented services such as inspection robots, wireless sensors, “connected” employees, and predictive maintenance. Recently, Shengli Oilfield and Huawei recently signed a strategic cooperation agreement to build a cloud platform and 5G-based intelligent oilfields.

Efficiency and cost are the competitiveness indicators of the oil and gas industry. As a leading global ICT solutions provider, Huawei is continuously working with oil and gas partners to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and achieve digital transformation.

Improved efficiency

In line with the strategy of increasing reserves and production, how to maximize value from historical exploration and development data has become a new requirement of CNPC. Together with partners, Huawei planned and built a computing AI platform for CNPC, to implement AI training and big data analytics. The customer has now applied AI in multiple ways, such as artificial lift fault diagnosis and seismic first arrival wave identification. The value of underused historical exploration and production data has been fully explored.

Reduced cost

Huawei built a local, dedicated cloud for Daqing Oilfield, to provide oil and gas exploration computing. This in turn helped Daqing to optimize its costs and shift high-performance exploration and development computing services from CAPEX to OPEX. By reusing ten PB of historical exploration data, the cloud helped improve computing power by 833 percent, and increase the annually processed area from 400 square kilometers to 2000 square kilometers.

Strong partnerships are essential in the oil and gas industry, regardless of the digital transformation strategies a company may adopt. Alone, digital transformation is difficult, due to its complex technical requirements. The key for success is to build strong and strategic partnerships with industry leaders, ensuring a clear scope of cooperation. In this period of digital transformation, it is critical for oil and gas enterprises to choose their partners wisely — it will define the industry trends, but more importantly, it will determine who will become the new industry leaders.

Welltec: Embedding Automated Processes in Manufacturing

Section: Advertorial, Paid Post, Technology · July 8, 2020 · No comments |

PAID POST

The Welltec Annular Barrier WAB®, a flexible, high performance production parker, is one of the results of a 26year long series of innovations which began with the Well Tractor® , the conveying device that launched Welltec in place as a top draw subsurface solutions service provider.

The company’s Development and Engineering (D&E) department is responsible for bringing new ideas to life and transforming innovation into reality. It is this ability to think differently and then do differently that forms the foundations on which Welltec is built. The company manufactures her products in-house, embedding automated processes to proffer completions and interventions solutions.

The main Manufacturing sites are based in Denmark with Intervention services produced in Allerød, a small community just north of Copenhagen, and Completion products made in Esbjerg, the Danish oilfield hub.

Below are pictures from a recent tour to the company’s facilities at Allerød and Esbjerg.

Advertiser’s Announcement: OILSERV Ltd Commences Massive AKK Pipeline Project

Section: Advertorial, Paid Post · June 8, 2020 · 12 comments |

Nigeria is finally on the verge of unlocking huge economic benefits arising from its natural gas endowment. For many years, the country had been hindered by absence of gas transmission pipelines in her bid to harness its abundant gas reserves for provision of gas to generate electricity, and stimulate rapid industrialization using gas as feedstock for fertilisers, ammonia and other petrochemical applications.

The commencement of the NNPC-sponsored Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline project by leading indigenous EPC giant – OILSERV Limited is the cause for this renewed optimism. OILSERV has been awarded the engineering, procurement, construction, installation, testing, and commissioning of the first segment of the 614 km x 40-Inch Gas pipeline, which is from Ajaokuta to mid-way between Abuja and Kaduna. The second segment has been awarded to another company.

Information available to us shows that OILSERV has achieved significant progress in a short spate of time including ongoing detailed engineering design, topographical and geotechnical surveys, haulage and stacking of line pipes in preparation to commence construction activities.

In the words of the Group Managing Director of NNPC; Melle Kolo Kyari “the AKK project is key to resolving the power deficit challenge of the country. Its multiplier effect on the economy and provisions of jobs will be unprecedented. NNPC will give all necessary support to the Contractors to enable them deliver the project within time and within budget”.

Chairman of OILSERV Ltd, Engr. Emeka Okwuosa, gave a pledge that OILSERV will leave no stone unturned to partner with NNPC and make the dreams of 200million Nigerians come true by delivering the AKK project to global quality and standards. In his words, “The capability of OILSERV has been honed in the course of successful delivery of landmark EPC contracts such as lot B of the 48inch OB3 gas pipeline system that is currently being commissioned”.

The optimism and hope that this development represents is a clear elixir that is surely needed by the entire nation at this time. We wish OILSERV, NNPC and everyone else involved in this endeavor, success.