SCADA

The oil and gas supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) market is expected to grow over the next five years because of increased demand for the remote management of pipelines and growing pipeline networks. The question is: What approach should your operation take when setting up your SCADA system?

Digitization allows for more accurate measurement and deeper visibility, but internet connectivity also means devices can be accessed remotely, and maliciously. This is cause for huge concern since attacks targeting the oil and gas industry or power grids are more than just about stealing data as they take on an actual physical manifestation.

Houston-based Remote Operations Center (ROC) connects operators to their data and provides an offsite monitoring workforce that can improve efficiency while reducing risk. It is the only third-party provider solely focused on executing control center services for liquid and gas pipeline operators.

Traditional SCADA systems used pipeline operational control are vulnerable in at least three main areas: operational information, production data and control logic. The more openly this data flows, the more cost-effectively the plant can be run, so there is much to be gained by securing the data exchange.

Enterprise Products Partners, Enbridge, Western Gas Partners and DCP Midstream have announced binding open seasons to expand capacity on a 1,018-mile system, which includes the Front Range and Texas Express pipelines and transports mixed NGLs from the DJ Basin in Weld County, Colo. to Enterprise's NGL fractionation and storage complex in Mont Belvieu, Texas.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Security researcher Brian Wallace was on the trail of hackers who had snatched a California university's housing files when he stumbled into a larger nightmare: Cyber-attackers had opened a pathway into the networks running the United States power grid.

Oil and gas engineers face a major problem in accurately and reliably measuring and monitoring the various fluids that are introduced into oil pipelines from well site pumping stations. A thorough understanding of both the oil separation process and the properties of valves and actuators is required to correctly specify a system that will sufficiently measure and monitor these various types of fluids. Also, the conditions downstream from each well are different, requiring valves and actuators to be highly customized to their specific role in the process.

Geophysical surveys can be the bedrock – pardon the pun – of environmental projects, from locating abandoned underground storage tanks (USTs) and utilities, to complex mapping of geology in remedial investigations and finding landfill boundaries and other buried unknown problems.

This has been a busy year of new challenges and issues facing the Appalachian oil and gas industry as rig count in the Appalachian Basin and elsewhere is down substantially compared to the previous two years. A significant challenge ahead for shale developers in a lower price environment is to continue to be active in finding land, drilling wells and getting the natural resource to market. This article concerns our most recent report, published in May, on the issues and challenges facing midstream operators in the Appalachian Basin.

ROSEN rolled out its much-anticipated R3 Service – which stands for responsive, rapid and reliable – before a large gathering of inquisitive industry executives and operators Oct. 28 in Houston. At the center of the new service is a fleet of high-end mobile diagnostics units capable of carrying all the diagnostic equipment necessary to sites throughout the United States.

There are about 3.5 million kilometers of oil and gas pipelines worldwide needing regular cleaning, inspection and maintenance, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA).