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CommentsCould IP fuel the next wave of technical developments in the oil and gas industries? This is the question being posed by Cisco Systems® and its energy sector customers following progress in the integration of IP-based management platforms and non-IP process control systems.
Like many traditional chemical and engineering procedures, oil and gas exploration, production and processing relies heavily on mechanical checks and controls that are a world away from the complex software systems used to run the business.
The reason for this is simple. While enterprise management systems can survive the odd software bug or virus attack, any failure in the process control network, from the overheating of a pump to the breaking of a valve, can have catastrophic effects and even claim lives.
In addition, the security features of enterprise management systems are often at odds with those of process control.
With the former, for example, it would make perfect sense to lock out a user that failed a password test. In the latter, locking out the potential for human override could be a safety threat.
As a result, engineers have traditionally resisted moves to introduce undue complexity into process control networks, sticking instead with simple, often hardware-based methods for monitoring the status of a given process.
While this has ensured that work environments can remain relatively safe, it has drawbacks from both a business and a process engineering perspective.
Specifically, compared to other types of organization, oil and gas companies (and other chemical and engineering firms) are less flexible and responsive, taking longer to adapt to changing circumstances because of the difficulty in integrating operational data into enterprise management systems.
Thankfully, however, this could all be about to change. Cisco, working with industry specialists such as OSIsoft and WiredCity, has been looking at ways in which its Intelligent Information Network concept could be used to help the sector.
The result is a blueprint that not only allows IP systems to be integrated into the process control functions of the business without compromising safety and security, but which creates a host of benefits in addition to improving flexibility and responsiveness.
Elements of this vision have already been realized in companies such as Iberdrola, Spain's second-largest electric utility.
The company has cut its workload in half and increased system uptime to 99.5 percent by using an industrial data center from Cisco and OSIsoft to provide a link between its process control and IT systems.
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