With the goal of making mega-construction projects leaner and more efficient, Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy Ltd. is testing a dual-frequency passive-active RFID tag developed specifically for use by Woodside and other oil and gas firms. The W-tag, certified as intrinsically safe, combines long and short frequency ranges, thereby allowing components to be tracked within a petrochemical facility’s battery limits.
Woodside operates six out of seven liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing trains in Australia. The oil and gas industry in that region has been facing numerous productivity challenges, as the country is poised to become one of the world’s largest LNG exporters during the coming years. The cost of LNG plant construction is high, however, and includes complex logistical issues unique to the harsh Australian environment. Woodside is the nation’s largest independent oil and gas operator, with a decades-long track record of delivering LNG to its customers in Asia.
During the engineering, construction and operating phases of an oil and gas facility, difficulties can arise that may have significant consequences for a client. Some of these problems include out-of-sequence delivery of construction materials, damage incurred during transit, and errors and omissions in details that can result in material being unavailable when needed, and in workers standing by non-productively while being paid. Such issues can be expensive, the company notes, both for the construction contractor and for the client.
Some of these issues could be resolved by implementing radio frequency identification; one example would be the use of RFID to quickly capture the long-distance identification of a piece of equipment. This could drastically reduce the need for workers to walk around a site searching for materials and tools, particularly at sites spanning several square kilometers, where temperatures can average around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).
Woodside explored several existing RFID tags, but found none suitable with the necessary IECEx certification (a standard related to the safety of equipment used in explosive atmospheres). What’s more, they typically consisted of passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags that could be read only at a relatively short range. Woodside sought a tag that was suitable during a megaproject’s five-year construction phase, when materials constantly change location and active tag functionality is required to support a longer read range. Upon a project’s completion, the facility is handed over to the operator with most materials at their final destination, so that the passive functionality would be sufficient for day-to-day inspection and maintenance. Therefore, Woodside went about seeking a way to create its own intelligent tracking system that would operate on its vast construction sites.
In December 2011, Woodside initiated a lean construction research program known as Project Echo, with support from government and local educational institutions Curtin University and the Challenger Institute of Technology. The program is focusing its efforts on technological solutions to make LNG construction projects leaner and more efficient, with RFID as well as other technologies. Since its inception, Project Echo has attracted some 15 high-tech companies that joined the alliance to further research lean-construction solutions. The research explores a unique system combining Woodside’s Smart Tags with a range of other technology solutions, such as 3D models and augmented reality, in order to provide the appropriate technical data to authorized end users via mobile computing. This unique concept can be described as a Google Maps solution for the oil, gas and construction industries, drawing only the necessary information from a vast Big Data set.
During the first quarter of this year, Woodside installed several RFID reading stations, including a variety of fixed, portable and handheld devices, to serve as real-time locations systems (RTLS), and to read tagged components at the North West Shelf Project‘s Karratha Gas Plant. The Karratha facility is undergoing continuous maintenance and refurbishment campaigns, Woodside reports, making it a suitable playground to test the new tool. The system allows local and global read-write functionality on the W-Tags’ memory, so contractors can update status and direct traffic from anywhere in the world. The collected read data is being transmitted back to Woodside’s server via a Wi-Fi connection, though Project Echo is investigating other methods of data transmission as well, such as fog computing.
Trials to date have included successful accuracy tests under both fixed and roving conditions, to determine the accuracy of RTLS technology in laydown yards.
The W-tag, a variant of Omni-ID‘s Power 400 RFID tag, is being attached to valves, spool pieces, equipment and vehicles. Each comes with a 433 MHz active tag, as well as an EPC Gen 2 passive UHF RFID inlay designed to transmit when interrogated throughout an asset’s lifetime, says Kevin Cohen, the CEO of Ramp RFID Solutions, an Australian company involved in the W-tag’s testing (see Woodside Unveils LNG Smart Tag). During the fabrication of materials, new tags are initiated and attached to a piece of equipment by means of plastic or metal ties. Users can capture or write data to the active tag using its long read range capability, since an interrogator can read an active tag at a distance of up to 400 meters (1,312 feet).
Once the equipment is moved into lifecycle maintenance, a short read range is necessary to conserve battery life. During that phase, the passive tag can be interrogated when the reader is near the tag.
The W-tag is suitable for rugged environments, with a molded inner case of a polycarbonate and molded cover composed of thermoplastic elastomers (TPE). It can sustain a 4-foot drop to concrete, Cohen says, as well as withstand vibration. The tag opens up unique possibilities, he reports, because of the IECEX intrinsically safe certification for hazardous areas, particularly for the oil, gas and LNG industry.
Subject to the trial’s successful completion in Karratha, which is expected to occur sometime after July 2014, Woodside hopes to use RFID to improve productivity through more accurate and faster materials and asset maintenance, as well as by verifying lifting equipment certificates, managing quality inspections, tracking the movements of vehicles around a construction site, monitoring rented equipment and preventing safety incidents.
Woodside is a cornerstone sponsor of the world’s first RFID for Energy, Mining and Construction conference and exhibition, being held in Perth on Aug. 12-13, 2014 (see RFID Journal to Hold Inaugural RFID Event in Australia Focused on Energy, Mining and Construction). At the event, Robert Edwardes, Woodside’s executive VP of development, is scheduled to discuss the need to use RFID and other innovative technologies to boost productivity and improve efficiency in the oil and gas sector.