Real Time Commercial Supervision At Petrobras

Real-time models and associated applications have been widely used to support the safe and efficient operation of pipelines from within the confines of the pipeline operations environment. Commercial systems have also been independently implemented to manage the business relationships between gas suppliers, shippers, transporters, and end users; however, the direct interchange of information between models and commercial business systems has typically been limited. As part of a comprehensive upgrade of their gas shipping system, Petrobras has implemented a real-time model on several of their pipelines, integrating SCADA and model data with the new shipper system. The shipper system provides Petrobras with the capability to schedule, consolidate, allocate, and provide detailed energy and volume information for invoice generation. Real-time model and SCADA data are used by the shipper system to provide real-time supervision of the shipper contracts by monitoring and reporting contractual gas quality, volume, and operational pressures, directly against commercial contract parameters, in real time. Further, a nomination forecasting application is used to forecast supply and demand, identifying future volume and energy penalty conditions. Through web access, each client also has the capability to monitor real time flow profiles against their nomination and nomination forecast profiles, allowing the client to be proactive in avoiding penalties. In this paper, an overview of the shipper system functionality and its integration and use of real time data will be provided. The challenges, experiences, benefits, and future enhancement considerations will also be discussed. INTRODUCTION The Brazilian gas market is regulated by ANP (Petroleum National Agency) from its production to the delivery to distributors. Distribution to final consumer is a monopoly of each Brazilian State government which is executed through concession to private companies. A Federal Law from 1997 defines six different roles for the gas market and the activities and combinations allowed among them. These roles are: producer, processor, importer, shipper, transporter and distributor. The diagram in Figure 1 below shows the relationship between these roles with respect to the physical flow of gas and commercial relationships. It should be noted that the processor is not shown in this diagram. In reality the processor sits between the transporter and the producer. The retailer in this diagram is known as the shipper throughout this paper. Prior to 1997, Petrobras, a corporation formed by the Brazilian government in 1953, was the only player in the Brazilian gas market, except for the distributor role that was already given to the States by the constitution of 1988. After the 1997 Federal Law, Petrobras created Transpetro to act as transporter, operating all existing pipelines in Brazil. At the same time, a new private company was created to build the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline, with 51% participation of Petrobras. Energy Solutions International Whitepaper 2 World leaders in pipeline management. In the year 2000, a natural gas business unit was created in Petrobras to play the shipper role. As the largest oil & gas company in Brazil, Petrobras is the main shipper for both gas transportation companies. This paper describes the development of an information solution to support Petrobras gas shipping business. In order to understand the magnitude of this project, some basic information on the Brazilian pipeline network is now presented: Transpetro’s pipelines are grouped into three main networks as shown in Figure 2 and described below: • Northeast Network – This network is composed mainly of five pipelines: First pipeline called GASFOR with one receipt point, four delivery points and a length of 238 Miles (383km), Second and third pipelines called NORDESTÃO/GASALP with two receipt points, eleven delivery points and a length of 390 Miles (628 km). Fourth pipeline called GASEB with one receipt point and eight delivery points, and the last Sub-Network, which includes four pipelines, a length of 93 Miles (150 km) and ten delivery points. The Northeast Network runs through seven states in Brazil (Bahia, Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernanbuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte e Ceará) and moves approximately 300 Million ft3 / day (8,5 Million m3 / day). • Southeast Network – This network includes six pipelines, GASDUC I / GASDUC II with one receipt point each and three delivery points. GASVOL / GASPAL with three receipt points (one of these receipts is the interconnection with GASBOL) and fourteen delivery points, GASBEL with one receipt point and five delivery points and GASAN with two receipt point and three delivery points. The Southeast Network runs along three states (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo e Minas Gerais) and moves 706 Millions ft3 / day (20 Millions m3 / day). • East Network This is a small network that moves 35 Million ft3 / day (1 Million m3 / day). It is located in Espírito Santo state. The Bolivia-Brazil gas pipeline, known as GASBOL, runs from Rio Grande in Bolivia to Canoas in Brazil with a total length of approximately 1,926 Miles (3100 Km) of which 1,611 Miles (2,593 Km) run under Brazilian soil. It is operated by Transportadora Brasileira Gasoduto (TBG). This pipeline will transport Bolivian natural gas to Brazilian consumers, with a total capacity of 1,060 Million ft3 / day (30 Million m3 / day). GASBOL runs through five states: Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina e Rio Grande do Sul. There are currently 18 gas distributors in Brazil and Petrobras has some participation in most of them. Gas shipping for Petrobras means purchasing, selling, and transporting domestic and imported natural gas. Domestic gas is purchased from within Petrobras, and imported gas is purchased from YPFB, Bolivia. Gas is transported through transportation agreements with Transpetro and TBG. Previously, these activities were performed by Petrobras Shippers using a complex set of spreadsheets, faxes, and phone calls, along with a Petrobras developed client/server data entry and a net volume and property calculation system known as I-Gas. The evolution of the Brazilian gas market motivated Petrobras to make the decision to go beyond the typical processes of nomination/scheduling, daily balance and invoicing in order to be able to identify and take Energy Solutions International Whitepaper 3 World leaders in pipeline management. advantage of business opportunities and increase profitability. Gas scheduling should be more than just managing balances between transporter capacity, supplier availability and consumer demand, it should target matching optimization based on contractual rules, to earn more or loose less, depending on the context. Moreover, a new process emerged as a significant distinction to Petrobras gas shipping business: the commercial supervision process. Petrobras realized that with their existing tools it was not feasible to implement the process evolution and this was the genesis of the project. A new system was required to provide Petrobras with the capability to manage the scheduling, supervision, and consolidation activities, replacing many of the manual and time-consuming processes with a more accurate and efficient system that also provides the opportunity to minimize contractual penalties, while improving the service it provides its customers. PROCESS DESCRIPTION The gas shipper in Petrobras performs the activities of Scheduling, Supervision, Monitoring of Measurement and Gas Quality, and Consolidation for Invoicing, as described below and illustrated in Figure 3. SCHEDULING This process occurs daily before the start of the gas day and is the first activity of the shipping process as outlined in Figure 4 and Figure 5. It is initiated by the end users with the submission of nominations. Available associated gas and processing capacity are also received from suppliers and processors. This information is processed along with available capacity provided by each transporter for each pipeline and with the contractual conditions to determine the quantities to be nominated by the Shipper to their suppliers, to the transporter and the confirmations to the clients. The Scheduling activity is complete when all nominations have been confirmed and accepted by all parties with minimal contractual violations or penalties, if any. COMMERCIAL SUPERVISION Commercial supervision starts at the beginning of the gas day and is described as the near real time monitoring of the conditions that affect the commercial terms of the contracts between Petrobras and their clients, transporters, and suppliers. Each contract for buying, selling, or transporting gas has certain requirements, such as minimum delivery pressure, and gas quality for example. Commercial supervision allows Petrobras and the client to monitor the conditions against contractual requirements, allowing them to respond quickly to any observed or projected violations of those contracts. Commercial supervision does not substitute operational supervision, in any aspect. Even though real-time operational data is fundamental to the process, it is only one part of the necessary information. Commercial supervision must consider, and have access to, all information concerning contractual limits, penalties and clients’ profiles and consumption patterns. Energy Solutions International Whitepaper 4 World leaders in pipeline management. Keeping track of what is actually happening during the day enables the shipper to identify business opportunities which may not have been previously identifiable. The interaction between the business world and the operational world is the basis for this new process. Penalizing a client who did not pull the scheduled amount of gas may not be the best business decision. Being able to foresee that the client is not going to accomplish the schedule may bring, on the other hand, an interestin