The search for increased cost efficiency, worker safety and site security are driving emerging wireless innovations in the Canadian energy industry.
In Calgary, wireless equipment provider Wi-Lan Inc. is pushing broadband wireless applications of supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) technology, which it says could offer Canada's energy industry video and voice access to oil and gas installations found in remote locations.
Broadcasting that message to oil and gas companies, however, could run into some static.
"We have to do a lot of missionary work, because for 25 to 30 years we've been of the mindset that more bandwidth is expensive," says Wi-Lan product manager Glenn Pollock.
"By adding (broadband) services, the operator can actually limit the number of visits to remote sites because he can get more information back at the operations centre, which offers cost savings."
Wi-Lan, which develops radio-communications technologies and partners with system integrators that configure and install SCADA systems, has created a broadband technology it thinks offers the oilpatch more features, such as video surveillance and voice communications.
SCADA has revolutionized the oil and gas sector over the last few decades, allowing explorers and producers, pipeliners and other industry players to remotely monitor and control operations from distances of hundreds of kilometres away. Generally, SCADA allows the operator to control such functions as pump and valve and monitor flow measurements, pressure and temperature, as well as leak detection and corrosion monitoring.
SCADA technology has been around since the mid-1970s, but really became an industry standard in the '80s. Users have four options: Running dedicated fibre-optic cable, tapping into a telephone system, using wireless technology or setting up a satellite system.
The latter two methods are generally the best options for remote operations, says Andy van der Veen, program head of NAIT's Instrumentation Engineering department, but satellite implies greater costs.
"Satellite is more expensive and generally you have to really justify its use" on a SCADA system.
"So for certain situations where companies are working in remote locations, wireless could be the way to go."
Wireless SCADA has traditionally been limited to a narrowband application, able to transmit relatively small bits of data back and forth, restricted largely by financial and technical limitations.
The applications that Wi-Lan's Pollock imagines becoming commonplace in the 'patch include using video monitoring equipment to enable a company to do a real-time assessment of emergencies, such as fires, blowouts and other situations.
In addition, communication between the site and an operations centre or head office is currently limited in regions lacking cellular or landline telephone coverage or Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) capabilities. This means onsite workers are unable to instantly communicate to the head office while maintenance work is being carried out.
"So now you have a situation where if the network is configured properly, the worker or contractor can plug in at the wellhead, compressor station or wherever he might be, and receive and send e-mails, talk to the dispatcher, those sorts of things," Pollock says.
Last fall, Wi-Lan - together with the Colorado-based Quadco Inc., a system integrator - inked a deal to provide its broadband wireless communications products and create a wide-area network providing voice and data SCADA applications for U.S.-based Marathon Oil in its remote oilfields south of Anchorage, Alaska.
Pollock says that while economics will be a factor in wider broadband-SCADA use, others could include environmental issues. For example, remote video monitoring could be an ideal solution in environmentally sensitive areas where regulators demand that local traffic be kept to an absolute minimum.
He also cites security surveillance and worker-safety issues as potential drivers for including video monitoring among SCADA's other functions.
"If you've got a man-down scenario (an injured employee or contractor) the video surveillance could prove vital in remote sites," Pollock says.
Worker protection is one of the factors driving oil-and-gas industry interest in a Telus Geomatics - a division of Telus Inc. - service, called GeoExplorer. It patches together different communications technologies to allow a company to keep track of fleet vehicles in real time, which can mean increased productivity and efficiency, not to mention safety benefits.
GeoExplorer is a Web-based application that allows users in the energy industry and other sectors to view and manage a variety of data imposed on satellite maps. Telus says this single application offers value-added geographical information system (GIS) services such as emergency management and automated vehicle location.
Fleet vehicles are installed with a transmitter unit that uses either satellite or digital cellular technology, which in turn sends signals to a server that can be accessed by the client company through the Internet. The vehicle's location and movements are then placed onto satellite-generated maps and can be tracked in real time.
"The oil-and-gas sector is trying to tell us that safety concerns are paramount, as are productivity improvements," Jim Huff, director of Telus Geomatics, said at a Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada event last week in Calgary.
Huff says the system helps companies comply with the Alberta government's "Working Alone" legislation - brought in five years ago to ensure employers minimize and eliminate risks associated with staff who work alone.
Safety isn't the only benefit to lure the client. The employer can monitor anything from how fast a driver is travelling to whether the truck is parked at the local coffee shop instead of at the wellhead - features that can lower insurance costs and vehicle wear-and-tear or clamp down on things such as erroneous overtime claims.
While this eye-in-the-sky element may sound Orwellian, Huff downplays the "Big Brother" aspect, noting that a fleet vehicle is company asset and the company has the right to know how it is being treated.
"I see it as nothing different from you sitting beside me in your office. If I can see you there, why can't I see where you are on the road?" he says.
"At least I'll know that you're safe, and I know I'm also doing the best for my customers. So the business reasons of why I do it is not to analyse you or be Big Brother - it's a business issue."
Telus Geomatics has about 300 clients using the GeoExplorer system Canada-wide, many of whom work in Alberta's oilpatch.
(John Ludwick can be reached at ludwick@businessedge.ca)
