Virtual Reality 3D Training For Pipeline Employees

Companies in the midstream energy industry are under pressure from all directions. While operating efficiently, it is mandatory that they comply with increasingly stringent health, safety and environmental regulations.

New facilities must be brought online quickly, an aging infrastructure must be upgraded and modernized and a retiring workforce, with the potential loss of know-how and experience, must be replaced - all with minimal service interruptions.

The oil and gas segment in particular has significant challenges. Refineries, offshore rigs, and other processing plants are some of the world’s largest, most complex facilities. Many upgrade, refurbishment and maintenance projects involve hundreds of workers who must be thoroughly trained - especially in safety-related operations such as handling fires, toxic chemicals, high-pressure leaks and other emergency incidents. Scheduling requires precise choreography to ensure each step occurs on time and in proper sequence.

Many companies typically have mandatory training for their workers and subcontractors a few weeks a year. Challenges to meet training requirements are compounded at offshore sites accessible only by helicopter or boat. Crews generally are replaced every six weeks on offshore drilling platforms, where on-site training is expensive and disruptive to routine work. Conducting training exercises on-site using actual equipment presents a higher risk of damage to valuable equipment and the crew’s safety, especially subcontractors and new personnel who are unfamiliar with the site. On the other hand, off-site mock-ups are expensive to construct and often do not realistically replicate real-world scenarios.

3D Simulation
A growing number of companies in the pipeline and gas distribution industries are addressing training challenges through the use of 3D virtual planning, simulation and visualization technologies. Such systems allow people to plan and schedule operational procedures, train workers and meet health and safety requirements by interacting with a computer-simulated 3D environment, including cranes, plant assets and workers to determine the best process to minimize project delays and mitigate project execution risk.

By studying procedures in this virtual world, engineers, planners, safety experts and workers can identify problems, explore options and determine the best remedy without disrupting actual plant operations. With lifelike 3D models, simulations and visualizations, planners can test their project plans virtually, and workers can see precisely what they need to do before they attempt it on the job. In this manner, optimal procedures and scheduling of operations can be worked out before projects are started in the plant or along the pipeline and workers can be safely trained off-site.