Industrial cloud improves custody transfer, remote monitoring for oil applications

Trigg Technologies LLC uses a cloud-based platform and remote monitoring to improve custody transfer services accuracy and reliability for crude oil and petroleum products.

By Mark T. Hoske April 2, 2014

Cloud-based computing applications are integrated into a Lease Automatic Custody Transfer (L.A.C.T.) unit from Trigg Technologies LLC to accurately measure, sample, and transfer hydrocarbons between buyers and sellers. The skid-based unit can be placed at any custody transfer location for oil production facilities, trucks, railcars, pipelines, storage tanks, barges, and tankers.

Flowmeters on the skid transfer information to an enclosure, feed data into the cloud, and the custody transfer is verified in real time; manual paper-based systems pose challenges later, which is difficult and time-consuming when discrepancies are found, technology provider Rockwell Automation suggested. Mass flowmeters compensate for errors based on temperature. Crude oil expands or contracts at 2% per 40 F temperature change, something typical tank gauges don’t catch; even a 1% error, with $100/bbl oil at 3000 bbl/day means $1,095,000 of lost revenue per year, Trigg Technologies suggested. A larger application with 2% to 8% error rates can suffer unrecovered losses of $11-14 million per year, according to a Rockwell Automation representative. 

Local, remote access

Information about the custody transfer and system health can be seen at the enclosure (see photo) human machine interface (HMI) and on enabled and secure laptops, mobile phones, and tablets, as well as by remote monitoring and support personnel tracking real-time system alarms, event faults, and notifications, offering predictive and preventive maintenance to maximize reliability. The cloud platform also provides secure data storage, workflow assistance, and a cross-platform dashboard with reports. "Cloud technology provides a vehicle to manipulate and manage data. Purchasing software as a service enables an organization to move faster into the realm of operational excellence through better utilization of existing data. Purchasing operations management tools as a service avoids using capital budgets and specifically circumvents issues of funding across assets. Services are paid for as they are used with operating budgets. Utilizing cloud computing to share operating conditional data creates an environment for operational improvement. ‘Private clouds’ leveraging the same technologies can be deployed if an enterprise has considerations that require all of the data to remain within their enterprise (regulatory compliance, investor compliance, etc.)," as explained in a Rockwell Automation white paper, "Helping Oil and Gas Companies Achieve Operational Excellence."

Ted Hutto, owner of Panhandle Meter LLC and president and co-owner of Trigg Technologies, was an invited panelist with other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) at Rockwell Automation’s Automation Fair in November 2013, in Houston, Texas, where these photos were taken.

– Mark T. Hoske, content manager, CFE Media, Control Engineering, mhoske@cfemedia.com, with information from Automation Fair, Trigg Technologies, and Rockwell Automation.

ONLINE

www.triggtechnologies.com 

www.rockwellautomation.com — Search on cloud platform.

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Original content can be found at Oil and Gas Engineering.


Author Bio: Mark Hoske has been Control Engineering editor/content manager since 1994 and in a leadership role since 1999, covering all major areas: control systems, networking and information systems, control equipment and energy, and system integration, everything that comprises or facilitates the control loop. He has been writing about technology since 1987, writing professionally since 1982, and has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism degree from UW-Madison.