Digital Insider - Issue 2

digital ISSUE 2

INSIDER

WHEN FORESIGHT REPLACES HINDSIGHT

How artificial intelligence impacts the future of oil and gas safety

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

CONTENTS

Contents

04 06 12 16 20 22 26

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OPINION Exploring the future of LNG DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION MISTAKES - and how to avoid them DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Why sticking to digital transformation is as hard as sticking to a diet SAFETY Where foresight replaces hindsight DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN Changing the face and pace of procurement FUGITIVE EMISSIONS Meeting the fugitive emissions challenge INTERVIEW 5 minutes with Mac McKee from The Data Refinery

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igital is a contact sport. You fall down. You get back up. You keep moving. If there’s one thing I’ve learned with digital, it’s to invest in your people. After all, digital will be driven by the people who are willing to learn and the people who have the confidence to do something different.

Through my job, each year I am fortunate to meet with hundreds of people from around the world. I talk to them about their latest thinking in digital and where they see it adding value to their roles and business.

Over the past few years there’s been a lot of hype and rhetoric around digital.

There’s been a lot of pivoting and false starts.

But in the past few months there’s been a shift in the industry. We’re starting to move from strategies and visions to tactical plans and targets. Technologies that we’ve been testing for a while now are starting to return data, and we’re starting to see how they can take us forward as an industry.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Predictive analytics has shown us how it can help prevent injury and make sure people go home safely [page 16] by identifying the number and types of incidents that are likely to occur.

Artificial intelligence and advanced analytics have demonstrated that not only can it help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions by accurately locating gas leaks, it can also identify leaks that are economically viable to fix [page 22].

And online industrial marketplaces [page 20] are proving how connecting operators, manufacturers and suppliers on one platform can generate free cashflow through the sale of surplus material with returns up to 266 per cent more than the market value.

Though none of this would be possible if it weren’t for the people who were willing to try new ways of working. Who were willing to learn. Willing to fail.

There’s no game plan for digital. It moves too fast. But for us as an industry to keep moving with the pace of change it starts with people being more curious. More bold.

Digital starts with you.

BRADLEY ANDREWS President, Digital

THERE’S NO GAME PLAN FOR DIGITAL. IT MOVES TOO FAST. BUT FOR US TO KEEP MOVING WITH THE PACE OF CHANGE IT STARTS WITH PEOPLE BEING MORE CURIOUS.

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OPINION

Exploring the future of LNG

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When it comes to looking at what’s next for LNG at Worley, Paul Sullivan, Global LNG Leader, is confident we’re better placed than ever to help our customers around the world

ince WorleyParsons and Jacobs' Energy, Chemicals and Resources division (ECR) merged earlier this year, one of the things many of us in the newly formed Worley have been asked is "What does it mean for your market?"

I’ve been fascinated to see some of the discussions and answers coming out of this.

The complementary skills and experience from each business strengthens our presence in our markets. For LNG however, it’s slightly different. It’s about a unique combination of skills and people.

Combining complementary capabilities WorleyParsons brought extensive frontend LNG engineering capabilities covering everything from transportation pipelines and pre-treatment facilities to liquefaction and regasification modules and storage terminals.

This capability applies to both onshore and offshore facilities.

ECR brought a global network of engineers – particularly in North America – covering all capacities, and an impressive craft (construction) capability.

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This means that we can reach out to the now almost 60,000 strong workforce and find ways of strengthening and growing our LNG team with subject matter experts, process engineers, mechanical engineers and craft workers, as well as obtaining access to a wider craft network of operators and subcontractors.

Thanks to the construction capabilities from ECR, we can now offer our customers not just front-end engineering but also engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM), EPC projects for smaller customers and an integrated solution to maintenance, modifications and operations (MMO) and turnaround. All this makes us better placed than ever to serve the LNG market in North America.

Focusing on North America One of the ways I see us doing this is working with specific customers to find out how we can improve the output of their projects at the end of the warranty period at first shutdown. We can provide an integrated engineering and implementation service for companies requiring a full service, a one point of responsibility solution.

OPINION Many of the new developers of LNG liquefaction projects do not have the benefit of multiple years of operational experience, operations and maintenance procedures and other tools that long-term LNG companies have in house. Our aim is to provide this opex element from specialist consultancy through to a full operations and maintenance service.

And, while this is a relatively long-term plan, it requires us to get in there early, before the project is even up and running or at the latest while the project is breaking itself in.

Adding value through digitization However, it’s not just about providing value to our customers through our increased global workforce or debottlenecking offering, we’re also trying to help them find ways to cut costs through digital innovation in areas such as modularization and standardization in LNG. The LNG industry is gradually moving from one-off projects requiring a large amount of bespoke front-end engineering, which costs our customers more, to more standardized projects where modularization is becoming increasingly important. We are supporting this trend through our digital capabilities with offerings such as 3D modelling, operational readiness, operations and maintenance standardized tools and procedures and maintenance build-out.

Our global technical services agreement (TSA) offering of accessible global expertise is a unique differentiator for us. It allows customers to access global experts for a fraction of the cost of maintaining a full-time subject matter expert of their own.

Playing a part in the energy transition I am proud to work for a company where there is a strong commitment to helping our customers navigate the energy transition but am often asked where LNG sits within this. It is widely accepted that LNG has an important role to play as a transition fuel as the world moves towards a lower carbon energy system, and it is for this reason that the LNG sector is a key focus for Worley.

There is a broad consensus across long-term energy forecasts of our customers, energy agencies and industry bodies of growth in gas markets to 2040. Gas production volumes continue to grow as countries seek a mid-term clean fuel source to fill an expected resource gap caused by the reduced acceptance of coal.

The LNG industry is an important one as the energy transition proceeds and therefore, it’s an industry we need to make sure is as efficient as possible, so we can provide lower-cost, cleaner fuels across the world.

The other advantage of the digital approach to elements of the project is that the schedule gets shortened because the customer is essentially buying something off an assembly line. This feeds through to the operational phase when most activities IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT PROVIDING VALUE can be planned predictably TO OUR CUSTOMERS THROUGH OUR and implemented economically.

INCREASED GLOBAL WORKFORCE, WE’RE ALSO TRYING TO HELP THEM FIND WAYS TO CUT COSTS THROUGH DIGITAL INNOVATION. worley.com

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

DIGITAL

TRANSFORMATION

MISTAKES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

What are the most common digital transformation mistakes and how can you avoid making them? We reached out to experts across the energy, chemicals and resources, consulting, banking and finance sectors to find out WORDS BY HAYLEY SUTTON

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digital.advisian.com worley.com

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

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igital technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics and machine learning are promising big changes to the energy, chemicals and resources industry. To prepare, many businesses are embarking on digital transformation programs to enable their organizations to reap the benefits.

However, according to a recent study

by Worley, the pathways to success and the benefits that accrue from digitization are not as clear. There’s a lot of confusion, failings and false starts.

But there’s always something we can learn from our mistakes, and other people’s too, which is why we asked our Global Digital Transformation Director, John Pillay, to speak with experts and peers across multiple industries about the top three digital transformation mistakes that they’re seeing – and how to avoid them – to help you with your digital transformation journey.

“Many executives are learning that digital transformation is harder to pull off than a typical change program,” says Pillay.

“Digital is always on the move, which can get overwhelming. But it also makes it even more important to get the basics right, rather than over complicating an already difficult transition.”

MANY EXECUTIVES ARE LEARNING THAT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS HARDER TO PULL OFF THAN A TYPICAL CHANGE PROGRAM.

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Mistake 1: Forgetting who the technology is for

It’s obvious. But it’s also a common mistake we’re seeing when it comes to digital transformation. Companies are still over investing in technology and under investing in change management and communications.

Blockchain. Machine learning. Robotics. All can offer significant benefits to the energy, chemicals and resources industries. But if we don’t invest in change management and communications, employees don’t know what’s going on, new technologies aren’t adopted, and changes don’t stick.

How to avoid this: “This is a familiar pattern and one that’s seen across multiple industries, but it keeps happening” says Pillay. His advice? Involve the people who will use the technology from the start and listen to their feedback.

“When Worley first started its digital transformation journey, we implemented technology that made five people’s jobs easier and 5,000 people’s jobs harder,” says Pillay. “We have absolutely learned that digital transformation needs to work with the company rather than against it. Challenge your assumptions, think carefully about unintended consequences and work hard on engagement.”

Pillay also advocates for a ‘purpose-led transformation’ approach. “Start by asking ‘why does the world need our company?’ and use that to map out the future and the role you play in it. By setting an anchor point like this, you start a conversation THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN DIGITAL around how people can influence the transformation at a personal ADOPTION IS FAILURE TO ADDRESS level and connect them to the THE PEOPLE ASPECT OF DIGITAL. bigger picture.”

– Digital Transformation Expert, Finance

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Mistake 2: Not having the basics in place Digital needs data. But data quality and data management fundamentals are often bypassed, with many companies getting distracted with eyecatching dashboards and artificial intelligence use cases without having the basics in place. These initiatives have limited impact if the data is inconsistent and if data sources can’t be identified and brought together.

How to avoid this: “Conduct a data audit of your organization and establish an agreed strategy for data,” says Pillay. “Get a clear and honest picture of the current state of your organization. And if it isn’t good enough for what you need, then invest in building a data infrastructure that’s fit for purpose and capable of supporting advanced data uses such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

But building an integrated data platform can take years to do. “We’ve seen customers recognize that their asset data is poorly organized. However, they become overwhelmed by the apparent effort to fix it and so they don’t get started at all,” explains Pillay. “That’s why a released based, incremental buildout works well in many cases – start small, but always with the bigger goal in mind.”

RATHER THAN ENSURING THE UNDERPINNING DATA PLATFORMS ARE ALIGNED, MANY COMPANIES SEE DIGITAL AS A WEBSITE OR SOME COOL TECHNOLOGY RATHER THAN WORKING OUT HOW TO DIGITIZE IN AN INTEGRATED WAY. – Digital Transformation Expert, Banking worley.com

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

DIGITAL ISN’T JUST A CHANNEL FOR POTENTIAL NEW BUSINESS. IT’S ALSO A MINDSET ABOUT HOW BUSINESS IS DONE. IT’S BOTH CULTURE AND BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION FOR THE ORGANIZATION AS A WHOLE. – Digital Transformation Expert, Management Consulting

Mistake 3: Creating the illusion of digital All too often, digital transformation programs create an illusion of digital progress, but nothing meaningful has changed in the core business.

A common trend is for organizations to create their own digital laboratory or even a separate corporate entity to experiment with the latest technology and show the core business how ‘digital’ is done. Though, it rarely works out that way. For the most part, they’re often disconnected from the business, refuse to scale and rarely offer insights beyond what you already knew.

How to avoid this: Pillay warns to not get too caught up in the ‘theatre’ of digital. “Start your digital transformation program by mapping out your central business processes, then identify how and what digital technologies, innovation and new ways of working can improve these processes or remove them completely. That’s where the real impact of your digital dollar lies.”

“Unless you’re giving up on your core business, the connection between the digital business and the rest of the organization needs to be strong and well maintained,” he adds. “Have innovation incubators but set specific targets and key performance indicators for integration – and make sure the digital team sticks to them.

“Digital transformation needs to be everyone’s business.”

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Some see today.

Others see tomorrow.

We see both.

The world has entered a major energy transition.

This will have a profound influence on humanity.

Our brightest minds are drawing on our extensive experience, to spark the changes needed to illuminate our future. Learn more about how we are helping our customers through the energy transition by visiting worley.com

worley.com

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

WHY STICKING TO A

DIGITAL TRANSFOR RESOLUTION IS AS HARD AS STICKING TO A DIET

From donuts to digital, Senior Content Manager, Molly Haynes looks at why failure is often part of the process and how we can overcome those obstacles to digital transformation success

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n a world of Instagram and Facebook targeted adverts and paid celebrity endorsements, you’d be forgiven for thinking that achieving perfect health and perfect fitness really is as easy as drinking a green smoothie and doing a workout that’s shorter than the time it takes the kettle to boil.

In the past, I’ve fallen for the latest fitness craze and embraced it to the extent that I’ve been unable to walk up and down stairs at work until, two weeks later, broken and broke – these things are not cheap – I’ve admitted defeat and gone back to my evening on the sofa with Netflix routine.

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The harsh reality was served up to me a few months ago, when I joined a gym and had a personal program created for me. A threemonth personal program. As a starting point.

This was no seven-day shred. But it was, promised my personal trainer, a sustainable way of getting fit, a way I could see long-term results and with a program that wouldn’t leave me half dead on the floor and begging never to do it again. In short, he promised an enjoyable process as well. Provided I found a way to give up my donut habit.

And, later that day as I ate my donut, I couldn’t help but wonder why do people’s health and fitness resolutions fail? And if I could pinpoint those reasons, would they be applicable anywhere else? At work for example?

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

RMATION One of the biggest challenges facing companies today is the pressure to go digital. To make a success of digital. To ‘digitally transform’. But if it were that straight forward, would I be writing this article now?

And would job titles like Head of Digital Transformation exist?

I turned to Bradley Andrews, Director of Digital for advice.

ONE THING THAT REALLY COMES TO MIND WHEN THINKING ABOUT BOTH DIGITAL AND HEALTH TRANSFORMATIONS IS THAT PEOPLE GET FRUSTRATED TOO QUICKLY WITH THE LACK OF INSTANT RESULTS. IN BOTH, RESULTS ARE NOT IMMEDIATE.

“One thing that really comes to mind when thinking about both digital and health transformations is that people get frustrated too quickly with the lack of instant results,” he said. “In both, results are not immediate.

The path to get there is not linear. When people want benefits too quickly in the process, it hurts the long term.”

Reaching for my second donut, I knew Brad was right. But what could I do about it?

“Any time you want to change something in your life or business, you need to think about habits,” he said. “Habit forming and habit breaking…and habit resetting. That is what culture is – just a series of people doing habitual things” I put the donut down.

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DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

“Once new habits evolve, you don’t even remember the old way you used to do things because you’ve changed the way your brain is wired,” he continued. “That’s the exact same thing we try and do in business. We try to reform habits.”

At that point, I put the donut in the bin because Brad had a point. After all, there are some things in my life that are so habitual I cannot remember them ever being new. Take driving for example. In my second ever driving lesson, I got the order of braking, changing gear, indicating and turning muddled up and crashed into a wall and almost caused a pile up. Now, 20 years on, I don’t even think about the order, I just do it. It's not just about forming habits though. Yes, you have to have a plan to form those habits and stick to it, but you also have to make fundamental changes to your life and business for those changes to stick.

Businesses that want to make a success of digital transformation could learn a lot from the failures in the health, diet and fitness industries. As Brad pointed out, we expect results too quickly. But what else is applicable to both?

LEADERS NEED TO BE SPECIFIC ABOUT WHAT THEY WANT TO ACHIEVE FROM DIGITAL AND ALIGN THEIR PEOPLE FUNCTIONS AND PROCESSES TO DELIVER TOWARDS THIS GOAL. AND THEY NEED TO STICK TO THAT GOAL. 14 worley.com

Looking at my own experiences, I think I focused on the wrong thing to try and get those quick results, and in doing so I was not really fulfilling my needs in the short or long term. And sometimes, there might have been other issues that needed fixing first – I needed to recognize what these were and sort them. And finally, and perhaps most importantly, I think my resolutions often failed because I didn’t have a plan – beyond looking like the people in the Instagram adverts of course.

This was something that our very-much needed Digital Transformation Director at Worley, John Pillay, confirmed as I was trying to explain my battle to change my two-a-day donut habit and how it had got me thinking about digital transformation failures.

“Many companies have learnt the hard way that a strong digital strategy and change management program is crucial to digital transformation success. Digital transformation isn’t easy. Leaders need to be specific about what they want to achieve from digital and align their people functions and processes to deliver towards this goal. And they need to stick to that goal.”

Which is why, that evening, I gave Netflix a miss, planned a healthy dinner and headed to the gym.

DIGITAL TRAINING

SPARE PARTS. WHEREVER YOU NEED THEM.

additivenow.com | 3D printing is now a reality. Are you ready? worley.com 15

SAFETY

foresight hindsight Where

replaces

A How artificial intelligence impacts the future of oil and gas safety WORDS BY HEATHER STEWART & CHRIS AITKEN

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ccording to the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), there were 31Â fatal incidents across the industry in 2018. This result was down only slightly from 33 the year before. A startlingly small improvement, given that preventing major accidents, injuries to people and hydrocarbon releases are top priorities across the energy industry.

Thanks to enhancements in technology, safety management in the sector has undoubtedly and steadily improved.

Traditional methods of capturing and handling safety information have become incrementally more efficient, helping to keep people and assets increasingly safer.

SAFETY

Enter artificial intelligence

But what if the future allows us to take the entire industry a step further? Widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) promises to transform safety management in oil and gas. There's an opportunity for the sector to shift safety management from a backwardslooking discipline to being able to predict likely events.

Safety management today Safety management has always been a discipline of continuous improvement, from seeing the redesign of infrastructure to account for human factors, to reformed processes that integrate productivity with safe execution. Each gain brings us closer to an operating environment with less risk.

Safety management is also a discipline of creativity and detective work, identifying repeat patterns and circumstances associated with incidents in the face of indecipherable handwritten or weather-beaten reports from colleagues. Digitalization has improved data capture systems, but the analysis is still predominantly a time-consuming task fraught with human bias.

The next generation of digital safety systems promises to deliver more than just information about past incidents that have occurred. Instead, we can analyze historical patterns to identify the nature and timing of future events.

SaltGrid, a predictive analytics platform created in partnership between SaltGrid, a leading data science company based in Silicon Valley and Digital, Worley’s data science, software and technology business, has been built to do just this. A cloud-based platform, it applies artificial intelligence to health, safety and environmental (HSE) data to predict the number, types and timing of incidents likely to occur in the future.

Using safety data, SaltGrid is also designed to quickly and without bias, recognize patterns and relationships that standard business intelligence does not. Predictive platforms such SaltGrid have the potential to shift the time and effort of safety professionals from administrative tasks (manipulating and analyzing incident, near miss and leading indicator data) to building programs based on what’s likely to come next.

So what does the future of a safety professional look like if we are freed up from these administrative tasks?

PREDICTIVE PLATFORMS LIKE SALTGRID HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO SHIFT THE TIME AND EFFORT OF SAFETY PROFESSIONALS FROM ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS TO BUILDING PROGRAMS BASED ON WHAT’S LIKELY TO COME NEXT. worley.com 17

SAFETY

Foresight in safety management Far from reducing or diminishing jobs, artificial intelligence has the potential to widen the scope of a safety manager, adding an opportunity to focus on creativity and problem-solving.

There is no doubt that AI-driven platforms could free up considerable time for safety professionals by automating the gathering, cleansing, manipulation and analysis of data.

That time will be spent looking at the specifics of a project, asset or facility, and considering: "How do I apply my safety expertise, based on what these machine-generated insights are telling me?" and: "What can I do to change the predicted outcome?"

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Artificial intelligence can put these decisionmaking pinch points front and center, moving the focus more toward proactive, specific action at a project, asset or facility level. This focus means that future mitigating measures can be highly targeted and efficient.

For example, the impact of weather conditions on a day-to-day basis is one area for data-driven improvement. Teams can be alerted to changes in the safety environment created by changes in temperature, wind, or precipitation, based on dangers and incidents experienced across historical combinations of asset, activity and conditions.

SAFETY

A lesson learned is a lesson shared

FAR FROM REDUCING OR DIMINISHING JOBS, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO WIDEN THE SCOPE OF A SAFETY MANAGER, ADDING AN OPPORTUNITY TO FOCUS ON CREATIVITY AND PROBLEM-SOLVING.

With less focus on administration and more time to focus on pre-empting, the safety manager of the future will need to be prepared to take a truly collaborative and transparent approach to safety. Continuously drawing on lessons learned, and actively sharing experiences with industry peers will become the norm, benefiting everyone working in the sector.

One of the visions, and even requirements, of platforms such as SaltGrid, is increased industry collaboration around data sharing.

Anonymized data offers the opportunity to automate the lesson learning process between companies and across multiple verticals.

Creating a safer world Driven by advances in data processing capabilities, significant progress has been made in managing risk across the energy industry. With the introduction of artificial intelligence into the process, the future promises to be more data-driven, more creative, and, most importantly, safer than ever before.

Find out more at worley.com/saltgrid

While energy companies remain competitive with one another, safety is one area of ongoing cooperation. To a large degree, this is a reflection of inherent, shared risk, and the recognition that everyone has a part to play in reducing the risk to people, assets and the environment.

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DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

Inspired by consumer platforms, Worley set out to make the procurement process more efficient. Fast forward three years and you have Requis, an online supply chain platform WORDS BY HAYLEY SUTTON

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or years the oil and gas supply chain has been navigating a complex system of manual and lengthy processes. Procurement can often be a slow, manual process with long lead times. There is little industry collaboration and poor management of asset data and information. And cash is being held in redundant or surplus material. For Worley, it was time to rethink how we did procurement.

Inspired by consumer platforms, Worley set out to make our procurement process more efficient by creating an online marketplace for the oil and gas industry. Fast-forward three years and you have Requis, an online supply chain platform built for supply chain professionals to buy, manage and sell industrial material and equipment.

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Like Amazon revolutionized the consumer supply chain by connecting consumers with global sellers, Requis is set to change the face and pace of procurement as different industries collaborate in ways never seen before.

“When we launched Requis, the vision was that it would help break silos between industries and enable people to work collaboratively instead of side by side,” says Ross McPherson, Director of Operations at Requis. “Sharing inventory on Requis can allow upstream oil and gas companies to connect to downstream or petrochemical companies who they wouldn’t normally interact with. The platform could also enable utility providers to share resources and critical parts in a transparent and traceable way based on their regions. And we’re pleased to report it does exactly that.”

DIGITAL SUPPLY CHAIN

The platform empowers buyers with superior datasets and transparent pricing, removing any uncertainty. And all assets listed on the Requis platform are certified, so users know where the items are coming from.

From a seller’s point of view, it’s a win/win situation in that companies need to dispose of their surplus material and return capital to their organizations. “We’ve seen Requis help companies get five, 10 or 20 times more than what they’re used to by reselling surplus material rather than scrapping or storing them,” says McPherson. “And it’s the same with spares – why do operators have spares the way they do? Are they over purchasing or provisioning due to lack of data? Through Requis, users can begin to understand their excess and surplus and how they can optimize that.”

Requis also removes the sometimes manual and lengthy procurement processes by streamlining and digitizing the time-consuming transactional side of procurement.

And for suppliers, it enables them to list and move inventory though a more efficient process and to a wider market.

When asked to summarize Requis in three words, Worley’s Contract and Procurement Manager, Alan Dunning chose ‘Efficient.

Empowering. Intuitive’. He says, “Requis is efficient because it handles the standard processes efficiently, it is empowering because it enables procurement professionals to use their wider skills to add more value, and it is intuitive because you do not need days of expensive training to understand it. It is as simple as eBay to navigate, search, buy and sell. And the Requis team are always on hand to offer support.”

But the vision of Requis doesn’t stop with energy, chemicals and resources, and it doesn’t end with buying and selling. The vision is to become the central nexus for all activity in creating or disposing of any product – efficiently managing the lifecycle of the assets that run the business.

Requis currently has over one million assets listed on its marketplace, including a $100-million-dollar power plant, with over 305 companies registered on the platform. It has completed two successful online auctions in the Middle East and Australia for two oil and gas majors, with one lot receiving up to 266 per cent more than market value.

Find out more at requis.com

WE’VE SEEN REQUIS HELP COMPANIES GET FIVE, 10 OR 20 TIMES MORE THAN WHAT THEY’RE USED TO BY RESELLING SURPLUS MATERIAL RATHER THAN SCRAPPING OR STORING THEM. worley.com 21

FUGITIVE EMISSIONS

MEETING THE

FUGITIVE EMISSIONS CHALLENGE

How a mix of advanced mathematics, machine learning and sensors can allow natural gas to reclaim its rightful position on the world stage as a clean-burning fuel WORDS BY LAITH AMIN

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FUGITIVE EMISSIONS

Reasons for uncertainty

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id you know, in April 2017, the United Kingdom enjoyed its first 24-hour power generation period completely free of coal since 1880, and in the United States, natural gas has surpassed coal as the nation’s leading power-generating fuel source?

While methane is an incredibly powerful greenhouse gas when released into the atmosphere in its raw or unburnt form, natural gas as a clean fuel can contribute to the reduction in urban pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Even Greenpeace has publicly accepted the important role natural gas plays in acting as a clean-fuel ‘stepping stone’ towards energy less reliant on fossil fuels, and countries are now starting to look to natural gas as a cleaner alternative.

However, with the expansion of onshore extraction and natural gas processing, there’s still cause for concern. Fugitive emissions – or unintentional gas leaks – are happening on a much greater scale than ever before, with an estimated $2 billion of natural gas lost to leaks each year.

Over a 20-year period, raw methane is 28 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than C02. Experts agree that if natural gas is to rival coal as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, then raw methane emissions must be held to less than one per cent of total production.

In the United States, raw methane emissions estimates have been ranging from two to 17 per cent of total production. Alarmingly, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently increased its estimate of emissions in upstream gas operations by 134 per cent, bringing the overall total to 1.4 per cent of total production (which from time-to-time they flag as a possible underestimation), or 40 per cent higher than the one per cent target to provide comparative advantage over coal.

Many are asking why these estimates vary so widely, or why there’s a methane emissions footprint visible from satellites to an extent that is alerting regulators to a growing problem? To answer these questions, we must look at the limitations in the current methods of measurement.

OVER A 20-YEAR PERIOD, RAW METHANE IS 28 TIMES MORE POTENT AS A GREENHOUSE GAS THAN C02.

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FUGITIVE EMISSIONS

Methods of measurement There several regulator-approved methods of measurement for fugitive emissions.

While they have been successful in detecting emissions in the past, they are limited.

Scenario one The first method of measurement is to apply emissions factors and schedules provided by regulators to equipment that has the potential to leak. The emissions-per-equipment item is then aggregated to a plant total to come up with a volume of fugitive emissions.

LIMITATION: Doesn't consider the actual leak rates or if in fact the equipment is leaking at all.

Scenario two This is what is referred to as EPA Method 21. A measurement instrument (i.e. a flame ionisation detector) is held near the stream of a suspected leak and it measures the concentration of fugitive gas in the atmosphere, typically on a parts-per-million basis. This method verifies if there is a gas leak, providing vital information for repair programs.

LIMITATION: Only gives you a concentration reading so operators can’t tell if the leak is big or small. It doesn’t determine where the leak is not – operators need to go to where they think the leak is.

Scenario three This method, recently added to the regulatorapproved list of measurement, is opticalgas imaging (OGI). OGI is an infrared sensor capable of operating within the thermal spectrum. It generates an image of a gas leak that can be seen with the human eye. For the first time, operators see what no other method could allow them to see: a gas cloud.

OGI plays an important role in measuring a leak in terms of 'how much' – something the other methods could not do. However, the more OGI is deployed the more practitioners realize that, contrary to what EPA schedules of leak estimates assume, a small number of very large leaks are often responsible for most of the emissions.

What's more, many of the other equipment items are either not leaking at all or have such small emissions rates that they are not economically viable to fix.

If you compare this to the other methods available, you could survey your entire plant and either not know which leaks are large or small or you could be unaware of a super-leak coming from a part of your plant that's not surveyed at all. With OGI, operators can see where their largest leaks are and deal with them appropriately.

LIMITATION: Only provides qualitative data.

ONCE THE LARGEST LEAKS ARE PRIORITIZED, OPERATORS CAN MAKE A SIGNIFICANT REDUCTION TO ITS PLANT’S TOTAL FUGITIVE EMISSIONS RATE IN A MUCH SHORTER TIMEFRAME AND AT A REDUCED COST. 24 worley.com

FUGITIVE EMISSIONS

Identifying and locating leaks quickly is key While OGI is a massive leap forward, one fact remains; an IR sensor does not provide quantitative information about a fugitive emission. It only provides a qualitative image of a leak, potentially showing either false positives, such as a moisture vapour cloud, or false negatives – because of range, focus, shadows or other issues. For energy providers to run an accurate leak repair program for their fugitive emissions, they must be able to quantify the emission rate from leaking equipment.

And, in a sector where 80 per cent of emissions are caused by 20 per cent of the leaks, the ability to identify and locate these leaks quickly will be important to strengthening natural gas’ role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Once the largest 20 per cent of leaks are prioritized, the operator can make a significant reduction to its plant’s total fugitive emissions rate in a much shorter timeframe and at a reduced cost. What’s more, if it quantifies its emissions reduction through a second subsequent survey after it repairs its leaks, it can determine how much it has reduced its greenhouse gas footprint through repair activities. This number could then be compared to the price of the gas and the cost of leak detection and repair activities to determine a return on investment.

The fugitive emissions solution Every engineer knows that you can't improve what you can't measure. So, what's the way forward here? It's closer to reality than we think.

In fact, the technology is here. Digital has created a fugitive emissions detection and quantification platform using drones, groundbased surveying, advanced mathematics and the latest object recognition technology to help operators find and quantify leaks faster and more accurately. And we’ve seen some exciting results.

In remote areas, drones have made surveying safer, quicker and more accurate, and causes less on-site interference than traditional methods. In a built-up plant environment, ground-based surveying can now collect accurate measurements from hard to reach places – we can now generate accurate mass leak-rate analysis from an image without having to go to the leak source in person. And our web-based, fully automated and interoperable portal is accessible from anywhere and is built on an open data architecture, ensuring it will always work with other inputs and stands ready to provide outputs to anyone/anything that requires them.

What’s more, our high frequency monitoring system provides a low-cost option for operators to monitor their assets for fugitive emissions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

By combining our object recognition and quantification technology, operators can make repairs in real time, increasing throughput, reducing surveying costs and generating better health, safety and environmental outcomes.

Once this low-cost technology becomes widespread, it's going to have a disruptive effect on future fugitive emissions surveying.

It will also undoubtedly allow natural gas to reclaim its rightful position on the world stage as a clean-burning fuel, ensuring its contribution to carbon emissions reduction for many years to come.

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INTERVIEW

5 minutes with…

Mac McKee

Data. Insights. Action. We caught up with Director of Strategic Initiatives for The Data Refinery – Worley's data science and machine learning solution center WORDS BY MEHREEN YUSUF

What is The Data Refinery?

The Data Refinery is Worley’s partnership with Arundo Analytics, combining our industry expertise and customer engagements with Arundo’s data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence know-how. It is also a creative space Downtown in Houston where we can come together to uncover datadriven insights for our customers and create solutions that help Worley deliver projects more efficiently and effectively.

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How does it add value to our customers?

At The Data Refinery we use our combined capabilities to deliver insights from data.

Ultimately, we want to turn those insights into actions that save our customers time and money, while improving safety and ensuring optimal working conditions.

For example, one solution we offer is condition monitoring of key industrial equipment, such as pumps and compressors.

We collect historical data on how the equipment is running and then build machine learning models that allow us to identify and predict future occurrence of anomalies, so that preventative action can be taken. This saves money on maintenance by identifying a failure before it ever happens, and limits equipment downtime.

INTERVIEW But there’s also a safety aspect, too.

By having a data-centric view on maintenance, we can limit the amount of time personnel need to spend in the field near hazardous equipment.

We have also created a drawing conversion tool called DataSeer, which takes drawings such as piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs), that may only be available as hardcopies, and converts them to smart, electronic documents. We use machine learning to extract the information in these drawings and translate that data into industry-standard digital formats, helping to save time and cost – and improve conversion accuracy.

How has this been enhanced since we became Worley?

The merger between WorleyParsons and Jacobs' Energy, Chemicals and Resources (ECR) division means we have greater access to a wider number of subject matter experts who can tell us more about how customers design, deliver and manage their assets.

For example, both organizations had strong positions in the sulphur market with licensed technologies. This reach has now been combined, meaning our licensed sulphur technologies are being used by a marketleading share of all sulphur facilities around the world.

As a result, we have a large pool of facilities to engage as we develop a solution to improve operational control of the sulphur plant and reduce downtime and environmental impact.

What is The Data Refinery’s ultimate goal?

We want to help Worley and the industry realize the value from digital transformation, by creating solutions that draw insights from data and turn those insights into actions.

I’ve heard people say that data is the new oil.

If that’s the case, the data needs to be refined just like oil to make it useful. And that is what we’re doing at The Data Refinery. We’re refining data so we can figure out what it is telling us, so we can help our customers make better decisions that deliver better outcomes.

What excites you the most about The Data Refinery?

With so many new developments on the horizon, it’s difficult to pinpoint just one thing. But mostly, I’m thrilled that we’re part of changing the culture associated with data in our industry. What we’re focused on is all about the digital transformation for Worley and our industry, and we’re excited that The Data Refinery is at the forefront of uncovering what this kind of change can do for the energy, chemicals and resources industry.

Find out more at worley.com

I’VE HEARD PEOPLE SAY THAT DATA IS THE NEW OIL. IF THAT’S THE CASE, IT STILL NEEDS TO BE REFINED JUST LIKE OIL TO MAKE IT USEFUL. AND THAT IS WHAT WE’RE DOING AT THE DATA REFINERY. worley.com 27

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