American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2016 - 92

and from all asset stages across the operator's portfolio. The scalable platform can
integrate with existing IT infrastructure,
alleviating concerns about installing a customized solution that could become obsolete within a few years. The system is designed on a modern computing platform
that collects, manages and delivers large
volumes of operations information in real
time across functional and geographic
boundaries, deep into the enterprise (Figure 1).
In contrast to a custom SCADA solution, the open distributed architecture is designed to keep operations nimble and responsive to change. The system is agnostic in terms of data collection, and can accept data from measurement devices supplied by any manufacturer. It also accepts
and provides data from multiple preapproved users, including field personnel, gas
marketers, business managers, third-party vendors, contractors, and maintenance
personnel. The data can come from any
system and adhere to any standard.
A unified data model is employed to
enable rapid implementation of data
through a predefined and prestructured
data scheme into the various job functions
across the enterprise. The model may be
configured to allow for the operator's
unique device names, point names and lo-

cations. Data may be communicated wirelessly from measurement devices to a remote terminal unit, where they are transmitted by radio signal to a SCADA server located at an office many miles away.
One or more solar- or battery-powered repeaters are used for transmitting across
large areas to ensure signal strength.
The technology supports multiple applications with the longevity required by
the operator. Typical SCADA systems may
be built to last 10 years, after which the
costs associated with maintaining a custom system become untenable because of
evolving computing platforms and increasingly complex system upgrades. In
contrast, the enterprise software in place
for Denbury is fully configurable, quickly implemented, and "evergreen" through
periodic software updates that ensure the
platform contains the latest features.
The system is purpose-built to disseminate, not contain data, making it scalable
to reach the desktops of every worker
needing a view into unified operations information without requiring additional
computer hardware. Users across the organization-from controllers to supervisors
or administrators in planning, engineering,
production, finance, marketing, etc.-can
find and use the data they require in a form
that is most suitable to their work.

Each dataset is normalized to have a
consistent look and feel, regardless
whether it comes from a meter in the field,
a third party, a legacy system, or through
manual collection. Whether the data originate from a pipeline, a wellhead or an injection pad, this normalization provides
openness to data access, allowing the
necessary information to arrive in the
hands of the right person, in the right context, and at the right time.
For example, someone in the field
would have access to the information
that allows him to change a set point on
a monitoring device, acknowledge an
alarm, or monitor tank levels and injection
rates. A gas marketer would not need this
level of field data and control, and therefore, would access data from a different
area in the platform that allowed him to
conduct duties such as gas transportation,
storage and accounting.
Enterprise Integration Suite
Overlaying these data collection and
management options is an enterprise integration suite (EIS), a tool set that uses
standard published data schema in XML
to get the data to the various business units
and job functions in the organization. The
EIS allows users in the field to set alarms
and controllers, and to replicate datasets

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American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2016

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