Total E&P Congo, Republic of the Congo

Spurred on by ever rising global demand for energy, major oil companies around the world are turning increasingly to the development of subsea oil and gas fields. Often drilling at great depths, their challenge is not only to bring these wells online quickly and efficiently, but to do safely. In such a challenging environment, dynamic operator training simulators (OTS) play an essential role in allowing engineers and operators to master and gain confidence in the techniques they will need to operate offshore systems and equipment.

Total E&P Congo (hereinafter Total), a subsidiary of the French oil major Total S.A., has successfully developed a new oil field that lies 80 kilometers off the coast of the Republic of Congo at water depths ranging from 540 to 660 meters. Using a floating production unit (FPU), the company is currently producing 90,000 barrels per day from these wells. The operators on this FPU, which relies on a Yokogawa integrated control & safety system (ICSS), received training on the OmegaLand OTS, which was developed by Omega Simulation Co., Ltd. (Omega). Using this simulator’s Visual Modeler dynamic simulation software, Total was able to concurrently develop process models and carry out engineering of the ICSS, and the developed models were utilized to provide operator training and ensure a smooth and fast plant commissioning. Total selected Yokogawa and Omega solutions for this project based on their extensive global experience in engineering full stimulation type OTSs that combine the emulation of processes with the use of real control systems and human machine interfaces (HMI), and their ability to provide a comprehensive “one-stop” solution of products and services over the entire DCS/OTS lifecycle.

For this project, Total selected Yokogawa and Omega as the main automation contractors (MAC). Working closely with their Total counterparts during the project implementation phase, a project team made up of Yokogawa and Omega personnel configured a stable OTS within a short period of time. With the flexibility and expandability of this OTS, Total believes that it can be used to achieve further improvements in plant performance and to optimize both operational procedures and plant logic and systems.

While the OTS design concept was confined to a simplified well riser model at the beginning of the project, Total found OmegaLand’s Visual Modeler process simulation engine quite flexible and began using it to cover a variety of process applications. Despite multiple difficulties such as reverse flow, dry oil pigging, and slugging flow, an accurate full-replica simulation that included robust well, riser, and separator process models was developed. Thanks to its seamless interface with the Yokogawa ICSS, the OmegaLand OTS achieved a realistic operating environment that helped to ensure a smooth commissioning process. The details of the challenges and solutions are as follows:

All of these challenges were met by intensive cooperation between Total, Yokogawa France, and Omega. Prior to actual plant start up, the site modifications for the Yokogawa CENTUM CS 3000 R3 distributed control system (DCS), ProSafe-RS safety instrumented system (SIS), and the process were simulated by the OmegaLand OTS, and validation was completed before the modifications were applied to the actual system. Utilizing this OTS, operators and engineers were able to ensure safe and efficient operations at this new oil field, and gained confidence in their knowledge and skills by virtually simulating operations and going through a full range of training scenarios before the plant launch.

Mr. Bernard Gobert, an OTS instructor at Total, said, “This OTS development was done on a tight schedule, but there were no negative effects. After the FAT/SAT (factory and site acceptance tests) at Yokogawa France, we installed the OTS at our Congo Pointe-Noire training office. Instructor Luke Meire was effective in providing training to a total of 500 commissioning engineers and operators, including both local personnel and employees of Total and the EPC. This proved to be a robust, flexible, and high fidelity OTS, capable of operating at four times the speed of the actual process. With the full ICSS operational environment, operators can enjoy the same look-and-feel as a real FPU operation. I attribute this success to the strategic efforts of the team members from TOTAL, Yokogawa, and Omega Simulation. In addition, this success provided a lifecycle support maintenance tool that we will be able to use with future development projects in the Moho-Bilondo oil & gas field.”

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