In the last 20 years, the oil and
gas industry has faced many
challenges - from exploration
in difficult areas to production
snags due to hurricanes.
Ever-increasing demands from
emerging markets such as China
and India coupled with the
decrease in easily accessible oil,
has forced oil companies to pursue
deep sea exploration and the
revival of old oil fields.
To solve these difficult
challenges, the historically
conservative oil and gas industry is
adopting innovative new
technologies for advanced
measurements, control and
information while keeping costs to
a minimum by integrating with
existing infrastructures. This article
examines the challenges faced by
the oil and gas industry and how
National Instruments LabVIEW
graphical development
environment and NI Programmable
Automation Controllers (PAC) are
helping oil and gas companies
solve these challenges.
Choosing the right tools
While the Programmable Logic
Controllers (PLC) used by the oil
and gas industry are sufficient for
traditional control, when faced
with the advanced measurements
and control algorithms often
required for optimised production
systems, PLCs sometimes fall short.
The same goes for traditional
human machine interface (HMI)
and supervisory control and data
acquisition (SCADA) systems, which
many times are not flexible
enough to connect to both legacy
controllers and new hardware such
as PAC.
PACs combine PLC ruggedness
with PC functionality within open,
flexible software architecture.
Engineers can use PACs to build
systems incorporating advanced
control, embedded data logging
and signal processing in a rugged
controller performing logic,motion
and process control. Another
challenge with traditional tools is
that engineers must learn entirely
different software to programme
their PLC and add an HMI.
In today's connected world,
managers increasingly want to stay
informed with the happenings on
the factory floor, so connectivity to
the enterprise is a primary concern.
A unified language for HMI,
measurement, analysis and logic
(such as NI LabVIEW) makes
engineers more efficient and
allows faster system development.
....CONTD
