Chevron: Cloud Data Exchange — Chevron Simulates Key Processes and Boosts Asset Efficiency at a Depleting Gas Field
Chevron, one of the world’s largest energy companies, leverages cloud technologies and data management systems to enhance asset performance and operational safety. At the Alba gas processing plant (USA), formerly owned by Marathon, the company implemented PI System — a solution for managing data from the edge to the cloud.
This article was originally published on AVEVA’s global website.
Angela Taylor, an Applications Engineer at Chevron, explains how data integration enabled the simulation of critical processes in near real-time, delivering:
- Increased efficiency
- Improved profitability
- Safe and sustainable asset operations
Project Goals
- Integrate asset data for real-time process simulation
- Enable real-time performance monitoring
- Improve alert accuracy and simulation efficiency
- Support remote team collaboration through cloud solutions
Key Challenges
- Fragmented data and models
- Geographically distributed expert team
- Need for strict data security
Solutions
- PI System – foundation for collecting and processing time-series data
- PI Cloud Connect – secure data exchange channel between cloud and on-premises PI servers
Implementation Results
- Secure and flexible data exchange with scalable architecture (up to 10,000 events and 100,000 PI tags)
- Real-time data updates between two PI servers:
- <3 seconds in the cloud
- <20 seconds on-site
- Simulation of key processes with action determination in under 2 minutes
- Collaboration improved asset safety, profitability, and operational resilience
Data Exchange Between Noble and Marathon in West Africa
As part of the gas monetization project at the Alen Field (Equatorial Guinea), Noble Energy and Marathon Oil developed a unified data exchange protocol between the field and the Alba plant.
Key Requirements:
- Secure data transmission
- Updates as close to real-time as possible
- Compatibility with both companies’ monitoring systems
Data Transmitted:
- Pressures, temperatures, flow rates
- Pipeline shutdowns
- Nominations, work notes
- Signals for action consideration (without automatic response)
About the Expert: Angela Taylor (Chevron)
- Over 30 years in the oil and gas industry, including E&P, automation, measurement, data management, and equipment monitoring
- Worked at Noble Energy before its acquisition by Chevron in 2020
- Expert in Time Series Data for offshore and midstream assets
- Actively developing:
- Condition-Based Maintenance
- Predictive Analytics
- Operational Intelligence
- Member of PI Dev Club, PPDM, DAMA, SPE
- Grandmother of four and participant in the Children’s Miracle Network program