The challenges with life-cycle management of an offshore asset, coupled with multi-discipline system engineering, and multiple competing project objectives provide an opportunity to seek a disruptive approach for maximizing value. The objective of this paper is to introduce ExxonMobil's new approach called intelligent Deepwater Advanced Solutions Hub (iDASH) where various engineering tools are strategically integrated to maximize value and improve decision quality utilizing advantages of latest digital technologies.
Establishing a cloud-based centralized hub with engineering tools that can generate holistic solutions is a novel and disruptive approach given the unique and complex nature of large-scale development and management of deepwater resources. As the energy industry goes through a challenging situation where more complex and competing objectives exist, the proposed iDASH can provide a new and unique approach to move in the right direction by leveraging integrated tools and data-driven technologies.
Offshore developments require a wide range of expertise areas including reservoir, wells, flow assurance, subsea, flowlines, risers, topsides, marine, geotechnical, costing, and project economics. Key challenges to asset life-cycle management include uncertainty from subsurface, limited number of alternative concepts, slow evaluation turn-around time, inability to integrate processes across multiple disciplines, and non-streamlined data transfer among different stages of a project. The iDASH approach proposes solutions by emphasizing the integration of tools, continuity among different stages of a project, and cross-discipline connectivity. Logically following typical project stages, iConcept, iDesign, iOperate, and iDecom are addressed as four pillars of iDASH to ensure value maximization.
Locating and integrating various engineering tools in a cloud-based centralized hub allows for cross-discipline collaboration, optimization, and faster cycles with either better solutions or multiple alternative options. Progress in this space can decrease capital expenditure (CAPEX) or increase net present value (NPV), resulting in faster monetization of an asset or a shorten payback time. Specific use cases and proofs of concept with different engineering tools demonstrate the feasibility of iDASH and value maximization. Specifically, a trade-space analysis for improving decision quality seeking an optimal concept is demonstrated as an iConcept tool. A riser optimization case is demonstrated as an iDesign tool. A mooring integrity checker is illustrated as an iOperate tool. Results validate that challenges in asset life-cycle management can be overcome and that the proposed disruptive approach offers quick, logical, strategic, and insightful means for managing the value maximization of an asset.