Anyone that has worked in the oil and gas industry knows that massive price swings have been with us for decades. Most anyone with several years of experience has stories from boom and bust times.

With current prices low, producing oil & gas as efficiently as possible is a key area of focus. If you are an oil and gas producer, you will want to join your peers at the October 12-16 Emerson Exchange conference in Denver, Colorado.

There will be a full program of industry forums, workshops, and short courses focused on the leading issues facing the oil and gas industry today with a focus on innovation and “doing things differently” is critical for the success of members of our industry. The program will address areas of expressed interest among oil and gas producers:

• “Best Practice” for new work processes & applications
• Optimizing output and operational expenses
• Enhancing the long-term viability of the producing acreage
• Financial implications of automation and operational decisions
• Social responsibility

Given reduced staffing levels, integrated operations (iOps) become increasingly important. iOps enables collaboration across the asset and personnel—both local and remote—across very broad disciplines to focus on analyzing information and making decisions in a much more efficient manner. Fundamental to this approach is the ability to use existing applications and data infrastructure. This iOps portion of the conference will address data integration and connectivity, surveillance and candidate recognition, engineering workflow automation, and collaboration.

Here are a few of the oil and gas-related sessions among the more than 375 sessions and forums:

• Tale from the field: Optimization of Crude Oil Measurement in 3-phase Separators; Learn How Pemex E&P Improved Measurement Systems, Session 2-5924
  Pedro Hiram Cruz Fernandez, PEMEX Exploracion y Production; Raul Olivera, Emerson Process Management
  The Cantarell Asset is a part of the Pemex Marine North East Region that has several reservoirs located in the Campeche Basin and that accounts for oil such as Orifice Plate, ultrasonic and V-cone meters currently installed in the test separators and in the Custody Transfer point in the different offshore platforms such as Akal-TJ, Akal-B, Akal-KL and Akal C1. These devices are measuring oil stream and also oil with presence of water.
• How Petrofac and Emerson Worked Together to Optimize Crude Oil Measurement in Pemex Onshore Mature Fields, Session 2-5917
  Jose Rojas, PETROFAC; Manuel Arroyo, Emerson Process Management
  Petrofac is a global leading provider of Oil Field Services. They were awarded by Pemex with two integrated service contracts to develop the mature fields Magallanes and Santuario blocks in South-Central Mexico “5 Presidentes Asset” located in Tabasco, that has been operated since the early 1960s. These fields have 1000 wells with 100 producing 14,000 BPD. Petrofac is focused in 44 wells that have been drilled including 4 horizontal wells. The separation battery “El Golpe” currently has a measurement system in 2-phase separator where turbine meters are used to measure oil and gas.
• Gas Producer Increases Production by Flowing Gas from Both the Tubing and Casing of the Well, Session 2-5719
  Theo Baughn, Southwestern Energy; Gene Little, Experitec
  This solution uses a combination of devices to help reduce the overall well bore restriction by making use of the casing/ tubing annulus to produce through the casing valve. Southwestern Energy in the Fayetteville Shale of Arkansas has partnered with Experitec and developed a package to complete this task. Using the combination of an Emerson FB107 controller, Emerson easy-Drive electric actuator with D4 valve and Emerson multivariable transmitter, the customer is able to increase production by flowing and controlling gas through the casing valve.
• Coriolis Multiphase Measurement at a Remote Tank Setting, Session 2-6125
  Robin Dutton, Emerson Process Management; Brian Real, PCE Pacific; Joe Kaiser, Major Alaskan Producer
  A major oil producer has a tank setting in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula field that is fed by several beam-pumped and ESP wells. Three separators are located at facility. One of these separators is a new vessel with a Coriolis meter and water cut monitor on the liquid leg. For internal reasons the operator purchased a similar system for the gross flow and oil flow leaving the setting. This multiphase measurement system is giving them accurate flow rates without the use of a production separator. This saved the company more than $200k in CapEx and $50k/yr OpEx.
• This is How PEMEX Implemented a Reliable Oil & Gas Flow Balance for Production Wells, Batteries, Pumping Stations in Whole “Chicontepec” Asset, Session 2-6211
  Eduwardo Mena Beltran, PEMEX Exploracion y Producion; Jorge Gonzalez, Emerson Process Management
  Production (PEP) Poza Rica Chicontepec produces heavy crude oil and natural gas in north region of Mexico. In the last four years with new government production department has optimized their measurements of production wells, separation batteries, gathering stations and custody transfer. By using compact mobile 2-phase separators with Coriolis, in more than 30 batteries that sends crude oil to gathering stations, all being measured with Coriolis, and with the use of Vortex in Gas wells and compressors, they have a complete reliable balance measurement.
• Kuwait Oil Company is Replacing Their Existing Wellhead Monitoring System to Wireless Solution, Session 1-5120
  Ali Faras, Kuwait Oil Company; Sujith VK, Emerson Process Management; Yaser Al-Ghamdi, Emerson Process Management
  Oil fields are getting old, and KOC is facing challenges to maintain and show increase in production. The idea is to have a unified SCADA system that could interface and with any 3rd party RTU & SCADA system that is implemented previously and in the future. Also to have a reliable & production technology that can be increased by developing new fields and increasing production from existing fields. This initiative also needs for SMART field implementation using wireless sensors on all the well head platforms that reduces downtime during the work over and maintenance.
• Optimizing Heater Treater Separation on Bakken Well Pads, Session 2-5700
  Sean Chinburg, QEP Resources; Joshua Haiar, Emerson Process Management; Ross Ready, Emerson Process Management
  QEP Resources is a leading crude oil and natural gas exploration and production company focused on shale plays in the continental United States. QEP mechanical instruments in order to efficiently operate their Heater Treaters which will allow them to improve liquid measurement accounting, minimize lost production while maximizing production and yield all while reducing emissions.
• Rod Pumps for the Artificial Lift: Innovative Variable Speed Solutions to Save Energy and Lower Maintenance Cost, Session 3-5465
  Chris Corley, Emerson Industrial Automation; Philippe Wesolowski, Emerson Industrial Automation
  Rod pumping is the most used mean of recovering oil out of the ground in the world, including 500,000 units in the USA only. Yet, many pumps are not and could yield more oil. Pumps operating at fixed speed capture only part of the available production flow. Pin timers and pump off controllers help optimize production, but stress the rod and increase maintenance costs. Although standard Variable Speed Drive (VSD) solutions provide flexibility they do not allow the lowest operating cost. Emerson VSDs tackle these issues providing higher efficiencies and possibility to save energy.
• Emerson’s Total Well Pad Solution: Measurement and Control in a Modular Scalable Plug and Play Package, Session 3-5383
  George Comer, Bayswater Resources; Jeanine John, Applied Control
  A holistic well pad automation approach must reduce time to first oil, labor, overall cost, training, and maintenance while providing increased safety, while providing increased safety, measurement and flow accuracy, critical diagnostics, improve environmental compliance and efficiency. These benefits are exactly what can be delivered when the Emerson team provides an integrated, modular, scalable automated well pad design.
• Using wireless temperature transmitters to monitor well production in the South of Argentina, Session 2-5814
  Daniel Bisetta, YPF; Elkin Suarez, Emerson Process Management; Susana Campanella, Emerson Process Management
  YPF is a major oil & gas company in Argentina. Operations include the exploration, development and production of crude oil and natural gas. Oil well which, considering the weather conditions, was a challenging, inefficient and expensive task. Whenever flow interruption occurred in a well, YPF didn’t know a problem existed until operators visited the well and checked it manually. This workshop shows how, by implementing wireless temperature sensors, YPF now knows in real time if its wells are producing or not.
• Anadarko uses AMS to gain complete insight into their Central Oil Stabilization Facility, Session 3-5698
  Tad Cahill, Applied Control Equipment
  Anadarko Petroleum has built an elaborate oil & gas gathering system for each of their Wattenberg wells in Colorado. The Wattenberg Area is one of their areas for production worldwide, and maximum availability is paramount to their success in times of depressed commodity prices. The creation of the Central Oil Stabilization Facility created a massive bottleneck as all production was tied back to this facility. One failure could result in the shut-in of thousands of wells, and lost production at four separate gas processing facilities.
• Emerson Level Control: Heater Treater and Plant Optimization, Session 3-6065
  Melinda Eliss, Whiting Petroleum; Loren Sjoquist, Emerson Process Management; Erin O’Hearn, Whiting Petroleum
  Whiting Petroleum is a producer of oil and gas, and have major operations in both North Dakota and Colorado. An Emerson Level solution was installed on vertical heater treaters in an effort to reduce gas sent to tanks, increase accuracy of allocation flow transmitters, andfacilitate safer operations. Additionally, Whiting has taken on efforts to alleviate Rosemount Level installation issues in Phase II of their Red Tail gas plant. Data is still being gathered to be presented as measureable results. Initial feedback is that entrained gas has been significantly reduced on heater treaters.
• Choosing the Correct Liquid Backpressure Regulator in a LACT Unit Application, Session 4-5777
  Daniel Leguizamon, Total Austral; Martin Medina, Emerson Process Management
  Total S.A. is a French multinational integrated oil and gas company. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading. Total is also a large-scale chemicals manufacturer. The company has its head office in the Tour Total in the La Défense district in Courbevoie, west of Paris. This is the story of the journey Total and Emerson took to find the right valve for a critical application.
• Direct Wellhead Measurement with Coriolis – Enabled through the 5700 Transmitter, Session 6-5932
  James Byerly, Emerson Process Management; Laura Schafer, Emerson Process Management
  As crude oil prices slide, customers strive to reduce expenses and improve efficiency. Visibility of individual well production is critical in this effort. High costs of separators and multiphase meters are prohibitive for most onshore operations, leading to many wells being commingled in a single production separator with intermittent well tests for limited visibility. Micro Motion has developed expanded capability on the latest 5700 transmitter with Elite series Coriolis meters for up to 20% gas void fraction, providing confident measurement and process insight at a fraction of the cost.
• Oil Truck LACT Automation, Session R2-5622
  Kevin McDaniel, Marathon Oil; Christopher Ziegler, Puffer Sweiven
  In Eagle Ford, Marathon was faced with a unique problem; large central facilities with dynamic tank levels and high H2S content. Therefore, Marathon decided to install truck LACTs to measure oil sales. But to get the full value of the LACT, it took a paradigm shift in how the LACTs were managed. By installing LACTs and fully automating the LACT data all the way through to the production accounting system, Marathon was able to prevent losses and minimize the manpower associated with truck sales. Marathon projects an annual savings of $19MM.

Register by August 15 to receive Early Bird rates and save $200. You can also connect and interact with other oil & gas experts in the Oil & Gas group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.