Monitoring Real-Time Pipeline Conditions

Virtual Manager™, as part of the Virtual Pipeline Manager™ package, can provide real-time estimates of pipeline performance including rate, temperature, pressure, density and velocity profiles; line pack and unpack status; and time to complete packing or unpacking operations.

Forecasting of Future Events

Virtual Manager™ can continuously forecasts end-of-day deliveries against multiple operational scenarios; profiles production and off-take rates against predicted plant/pipeline performance; and allows consequence analysis of planned and unplanned shutdowns and equipment availability throughout the day.

Look-Ahead/Standard Forecast Functionality

Britannia Oil Limited Virtual Manager™

VM's Look-Ahead/Standard Forecast functionality provides an automatic, forward-looking evaluation of system performance and conditions using a snapshot of current inlet (i.e., product transportation/supply plans), and outlet (i.e., demand/ delivery/ outtake profiles) boundary conditions, holding them constant over the prediction period and planned operations (operating assumptions, nominations, etc.), that may involve time variant factors.

The goal for the Look-Ahead/Standard Forecast calculations is to alert production controllers to potential problems related to operations, over the given time horizon. This includes the functionality to help evaluate the network's general operating limits, potential delivery constraints, supply changes, equipment failure, peak demand and capacity analysis.

The Look-Ahead will provide the same information provided by the Real-Time Module, but predicted at the future time horizon. The overall Virtual Pipeline Manager™ system can accurately predict future pipeline profiles (pressure, temperature, flow rate and composition), simulate the pipeline behavior, and forecast (next hours or days) conditions through the network under various contingencies.

"What-if" Forecast Functionality
VM's Predictive/"What-if" Forecast module provides functionality similar to the Look-Ahead/Standard Forecast Module, except that alternative operating strategies ("What-if" scenarios) can be evaluated.

For this purpose, the Look-Ahead/Standard Forecast Module is simply a "sub-set" of the "What-if" Forecast, where the scenario for the "What-if" is the current conditions, with no further input or changes.

This "What-if" Forecast functionality provides operations with the ability to evaluate the cause and effect of various operational strategies and planned/unplanned maintenance activities, determine possible preventative actions, and identify proactive responses to changes in pipeline supply and demand constraints.

Example Project Requirements

• Real-Time, Pipeline Management and Production Control
• Monitoring Delivery and Shortfall
• Composition and Quality Tracking
• Blending Management
• Links to Nominations and Accounting System
• Heater Set-point and Dew-point Monitoring and Control
• Auto-Recommendations of Optimized Production Plan
• Forecasting and Off-Line "What-if" Analysis
• Liquid Dropout Prediction and Tracking
• Leak Detection and Location
• Production Substitution and Balancing across PCS