AVEVA’s Approach for the Digital Asset

Summary

There is no question that one of the primary drivers in today's global economy is the ever-increasing demand for energy. Industry, business, and society at large across all local, regional, and national levels steadily and relentlessly demand more energy to fuel both emerging economies and maintain the industrialized world. While the growth of alternative energy sources like wind, solar, geothermal, and others continues to grow, fossil fuels will remain a mainstay of energy production, at least for the foreseeable future. Experts project that energy consumption will increase by 56 percent from 2010 to 2050.

Exploration and production (E&P) for oil and natural gas is at an all-time high globally. From 2000 to 2012, oil production increased by 15 percent and gas production by more than 49 percent. But, by now, it is clear that most of "easy" oil and gas has already been found., The cost of capital E&P projects (CAPEX) increased by a whopping 387 percent during that time period (Douglas Westwood, Barclays Capital, BP). Even with the substantial profit margins of the big oil companies, there is growing and real concern that CAPEX projects and operating margins must be brought under control or E&P activities could be significantly impacted. Further exacerbating this situation is fact that the oil & gas sector has an aging workforce and appropriate workers must be found and trained, and quickly, if the industry is to meet energy demands.

To meet the requirements for leaner project execution and more efficient operations while transferring knowledge to a new generation of workers, the entire upstream sector sees the need for more effective knowledge management.

As ARC Advisory Group learned in a recent briefing with AVEVA executives, the company clearly recognizes the critical need for effective exchange of and accessibility to knowledge and asset information across the CAPEX to OPEX lifecycle that spans design, procurement, construction, commissioning, and operate and maintain (O&M) activities.

AVEVA's Solution Set Focuses on the Digital Asset

AVEVA created its Digital Asset approach to provide complete access to all asset information across both the capital project and O&M lifecycle domains. The company's Digital Asset approach targets owner-operators with its Operations Integrity Management solutions, engineering contractors with its Integrated Project Execution, and shipbuilders with its Integrated Shipbuilding solutions. Building, operating, and maintaining the Digital Asset requires access to a large range of information that enables the overall knowledge management of the project. This includes:

• Engineering & Design
• Project Information Management
• Material Management
• Planning
• Construction & Production Management
• Operational Readiness
• Enterprise Asset & Information Management
• Asset Visualization & Simulation
• Brownfield Data Capture
• Asset Modifications

Digital Asset information must be "living," that is, it must be current, actionable, and address all the domains of plant lifecycle. It must be flexible and able to adapt to project changes and modifications. It must be open with all files, models, and assent information accessible by all of the players. Digital Asset information must be object-centric, with all asset information based on common objects irrespective of proprietary nomenclature. AVEVA created its approach to the Digital Asset lifecycle to address each of these key areas.

Conclusion

In today's demanding global plant design and infrastructure environment, companies are struggling to control the cost, complexity, and duration of very large projects. This is especially true in the upstream oil & gas sector. Creating and maintaining a continuum of information and knowledge management for the digital assets in this industry is critical to the success of these projects from engineering design to operations and maintenance. AVEVA clearly recognizes this, and offers products and knowledge management solutions that sustain and support the digital asset from CAPEX to OPEX.

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Keywords: Digital Asset, CAPEX, OPEX, Energy Demand, Retiring Workforce.