Oct 14, 2010Weatherford International Ltd., a global provider of products and services for oil and natural gas wells, is employing radio frequency identification to track its drill pipes destined for offshore oil rigs owned by global energy company Petrobras, headquartered in Brazil. The system is provided by Trac ID Systems, a Norwegian provider of RFID solutions. Weatherford tracks thousands of pieces of equipment leased to companies throughout the world, and also provides inspection services and maintenance for those assets as they are used on customers' work sites. To track its equipment, Weatherford uses enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage data regarding all equipment on its sites, as well as the serial numbers marked on the pipes themselves.
However, when Weatherford signed a contract with Petrobras for an offshore drilling project (scheduled to begin in late 2010), Petrobras, as part of its contract, required an RFID-based system to track each item used at its offshore sites. By utilizing RFID technology to track its own product, the contractor could better assure Petrobras that the proper equipment was on the platform, and that it could be located easily for the maintenance purposes. The RFID system Weatherford is providing offers an automated method for tracking when each piece of equipment is maintained and inspected, in addition to the amount of wear resulting from heavy use.
Weatherford was not new to RFID technology. Recently, the firm began developing a passive RFID tag for Marathon Oil Corp. as part of what is called the RipTide system, to instruct electronically controlled drilling reamers to be either activated or deactivated (Weatherford declines to indicate the tag's RF frequency, or the RFID standards to which they conform). Once activated, the reamer extends its cutters in order to widen a hole being drilled. When that function is required, an RFID tag is dropped down the hole. The tag passes through the internal diameter of the drill stem around which a reader antenna is installed, capturing the ID number encoded to the tag. Based on the tag's specific ID number, the module causes the reamer to extend or retract its cutters. The RipTide system has been tested extensively with Marathon Oil, including at an oil-drilling site in North Dakota.
Until now, however, Weatherford has not employed RFID to track inventory or inspection histories, according to Thomas Redlinger, the firm's global technical specialist.
"Petrobras saw a value in being able to quickly identify assets," Redlinger says, and the oil company requested that all 5-inch-wide drill pipes provided by Weatherford be tagged. By tagging the drill pipes with RFID tags and reading them as they are sent to an offshore rig, the company could generate reports regarding the equipment's location, which it could then share with Petrobras. In addition, Weatherford's inspectors and maintenance personnel could use the system to quickly identify when any specific pipe was last inspected or maintained, and update the record in the database accessed by handheld RFID readers.
To accomplish this, Weatherford has begun fitting each pipe with a 134.5 kHz RFID tag compliant with the ISO 18000-2 standard, provided by Trac ID. Measuring 24 millimeters (1 inch) in diameter, Trac ID's drill-pipe tag is designed to be rugged enough to withstand the pressure and heat present in an oil well, says Manfred Vonlanthen, Trac ID's director of sales and marketing. The tags can then be read using an RFID interrogator built into an SDG Systems Trimble (TDS) Nomad handheld computer. An ID number encoded to each tag is linked to data about the pipe to which it is attached, such as its size and maintenance history.
Based on the tag's ID number, the TAM software retrieves data related to that pipe and forwards it to the handheld reader so that employees can immediately view details about the pipe and receive an alert if it is due for an inspection or requires maintenance.
Prior to being shipped to the rig, the tag can be read again, by either Petrobras' or Weatherford's staff, to ensure the appropriate, fully inspected pipe is being sent offshore. Petrobras' workers can also keep a handheld reader on the offshore platform, Redlinger adds, to confirm information regarding any specific tagged pipe.
When the offshore rig is finished using the pipe, it will be shipped back to Weatherford, where an inspector will again use the handheld to read the tag. The inspector can then input his observations while examining the pipe, noting, for instance, any relevant changes in dimension. Drilling can, for example, wear away a pipe's exterior, and if the reduction in diameter is severe enough, a pipe must be repaired or replaced.
Although the system is still in its early stages—7,500 drill pipes are expected to be tagged by the end of 2010—Redlinger predicts that when the system is fully implemented, Weatherford will have greater access to data regarding each item's condition, and could use the software to forecast inspections and thereby better schedule them. "I think that will make us better at what we do," he says, "by providing relevant, technical, inspection and usage data almost immediately, and should allow us to provide a service that will benefit our client."
The Trac ID RFID tags attached to the drill pipe are capable of automatic reading inside oil wells, Vonlanthen says. However, he notes, Weatherford and Petrobras have no immediate plans to utilize them in that way for this application.
