Lighting the way towards smarter production

Through the GLN, the WEF aims to demonstrate the potential of 4IR technology by highlighting facilities that have successfully implemented it.

Being accepted into the network is a rigorous process. Each application is assessed by a committee of industry experts, who then visit the leading candidates, in-person or virtually, to inspect their implementation of 4IR technologies. This committee possesses first-hand knowledge of the world's leading 4IR facilities and considers the complete production and value chain. It assesses not only the technological innovation of the prospective network member, but also whether it is prioritizing both planet and people in scaling its business.

Once admitted, facilities become part of a community, connecting and communicating to share best practice. Members collaborate on new projects and develop insights, learning together and incubating new partnerships.

This is important for Aramco as we continually strive to leverage partnerships to drive innovation and meet the world's growing energy needs more efficiently. Attempting to balance energy production and increased sustainability demands more efficient oil and gas processing and production. That is where pioneering technologies offer a way forward.

The second of our facilities accepted into the Network was Khurais, the world’s largest intelligent oil field, in 2020. Khurais opened in 2009 and has turned to 4IR technologies to help manage its sheer scale: over 500 oil wells. Tens of thousands of sensors have been installed across Khurais to collect data on every aspect of production and power consumption.

All this data feeds into a ‘digital twin’ of Khurais. This is a real-time virtual model of the facility that monitors performance, and predicts and diagnoses any problems within the end-to-end operations. 

A digital twin gives engineers the ability to test planned or proposed adjustments to plant operations in a virtual environment and deploy the most effective ones. This can be done without any disruption to the activities of the real plant.

The technology has helped us to increase production at Khurais, while simultaneously reducing power consumption by 18%, reducing our maintenance costs by 30%, and cutting inspection times by around 40%.

Abqaiq Plants is our largest oil processing facility and one of the largest crude stabilization plants in the world, providing 5% of global oil supplies. It is also our oldest, at over 70 years old. By utilizing cutting-edge technologies, we transformed its manufacturing processes, making them more digitalized. The consequent boost in its performance and efficiency, resulted in it becoming our third facility to be awarded Lighthouse recognition in 2021.

An old facility does bring challenges, however. The buildings were not constructed with Wi-Fi in mind, for example, but data transfer is vital for smarter production. That has meant spending time putting new infrastructure into the facility — from wires to new walls — to enable fast and reliable connectivity.

Abqaiq Plants has been able to increase power generation from the oil it produces, simply through employing AI algorithms that analyze the oil stabilization process, and then make adjustments in order to optimize performance and improve product consistency.

Similarly, sensors and AI have been used to predict when assets might fail and to schedule maintenance or replacement. The result has been a drop in unplanned maintenance of 20% and the significant reduction of production delays due to equipment failure.

Furthermore, the technology has helped us reduce gas flaring, the process of releasing and burning off excess natural gas, that is sometimes necessary as a safety measure, but which we work to constantly reduce because it releases methane and carbon dioxide.