BRPI0801251A2 - system for communication between a surface installation and a subsea production control system - Google Patents

Abstract

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM BETWEEN A SURFACE INSTALLATION OF A SUBMARINE PRODUCTION CONTROL SYSTEM. It is a mixer for customizing between a surface installation and a submarine production control mix including a communication slide located close to the surface of the aquatic environment. The aquatic environment surface communication device has at least one communication interface. A communication slide is linked to a wellhead or suber structure close to the bottom of the aquatic environment. The aquatic environment background communication device has at least one communication interface. A communication channel extends between the surface communication device and the aquatic environment background communication device. A multiplexer is functionally coupled to the communication interface on each of the communication devices, with an aquatic surface and an aquatic environment background. For the past two remote devices are functionally coupled to the aquatic environment background multiplexer. The remote devices comprise at least one of a sensor and a control device. At least two corresponding devices are attached to the surface multiplexer. Corresponding devices include at least one of a signal acquisition device and a control signal generation device.

Description

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM BETWEEN A SURFACE INSTALLATION AND AN UNDERWATER PRODUCTION CONTROL SYSTEM

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the technical field of devices used for signal communication between a wellbore or a marine mud-based device having production control equipment at the bottom of an aquatic environment and production facilities located on the water surface. More particularly, the invention relates to signal demultiplexing devices that allow communication of a plurality of wellbore or seabed-based devices using communication channels already existing between the bottom and the surface of the aquatic environment.

Prior Art

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0262008 A1 filed by Deans et al. And incorporated herein by reference describes a system for communicating signals from a production facility located on the surface of an aquatic environment, such as a floating production facility, Floating Production, Storage and Offloadingfacility (FPSO) or a floating production platform, for example, to and from a drilled wellbore through underground geological formations located below the bottom of the underwater environment or to and from sensors and equipment located on the seabed. The wellbore includes a number of sensors and control devices connected to a communications interconnect device arranged in a "wellhead" system located near the bottom of the water. The seabed equipment may include a variety of sensors mounted on seabed production equipment arranged in the underwater environment.

In some instances, it may be desirable to add sensors and / or control devices to an existing seabed or wellbore equipment, or it may be desirable to couple additional sensors and / or devices to control additional seabed equipment or wellbores to a communication interconnection. existing. This need can be met by setting up an additional communication channel. This need can also be met by providing additional interface devices between these additional sensors / controls and an existing communication channel. The latter of these options has become less desirable due to the adoption of certain industry-standard communication protocols and configurations. The configuration and protocol are described in the work Intelligent WellInterface Standardization ("IWIS") Panei [Roundtable on Intelligent Well Interface Formatting], published by OTM Consulting Ltd., 44Quarry Street, Guildford, Surrey, GUl 3XQ, United Kingdom. The adopted standards limit the number of device interfaces that can be used in association with a communication channel. Other communications standards include the Subsea Instrumentation Interface Standardization (SUS) standard, also published by QTM Consulting Ltd. and the Subsea Fiber Optic Monitoring (SEFOM) standard. for subsea fiber optic equipment, also published by OTM Consulting Ltd.

It is desirable to provide additional communication capability for control device and / or sensors in an existing communication channel between the bottom of the underwater environment and the surface thereof without increasing the number of device interfaces.

Summary of the Invention

A system for communicating between a surface-mounted installation and an underwater production control system includes a communication device close to the water surface. The aquatic surface communication device has at least one communication interface. A communication device is functionally associated with a wellhead or other production control structure such as a production sink near the bottom of the aquatic environment. The aquatic background communication device has at least one communication interface. A communication channel extends between the surface communication device and the aquatic background communication device. A multiplexing device is functionally coupled to the communication interface on each of the marine surface and bottom communication devices. At least two remote devices are functionally coupled to the aquatic background multiplexer. Remote devices consist of at least one sensor and one control. At least two corresponding devices are coupled to the surface multiplexer. The two corresponding devices include at least one of a signal acquisition device and a control signal generation device.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and the claims attached hereto.

Brief Description of the Drawings

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration of a subsea monitoring and control system (viSubseaMonitoring and Control "- SMC) that includes a demultiplexing unit attached to it.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a multiplexer coupled to a subsea production control system.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example of a multiplexer coupled to an underwater production control system. FIG. 4 illustrates an example of equipment in a surface facility that can send commands to, and accept signals from, devices connected to a multiplexer as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3.

Detailed Description

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary configuration of an subsea production system including an subsea well 10 in which certain types of completion equipment are installed. Completion equipment includes a production line 12, such as a production line. Several sensors 14, 16, 18 and control devices 20 are positioned within the underwater wells 10. Examples of sensors 14, 16, 18 include pressure sensors, temperature sensors, flow rate sensors, shock detectors (eg accelerometers). ), among other types of sensors. Examples of control devices 20 include a flow control device (e.g., a valve) and a pump, among others. Sensors 14, 16, 18 and control device 20 may be coupled via a well interior communications interconnection 22. Well interior communications interconnection 22 may consist of an electrical cable, a fiber optic cable, or a wireless communication interconnect such as acoustic or electromagnetic. Interconnection 22 inland well communications extends to an underwater wellhead equipment 24, such as an underwater well or "tree" control system. Part of the subsea wellhead equipment 24 may include a subsea production control system 26. It should be noted that sometimes the production control system may be mounted on a structure such as a production manifold rather than tree mounted, and may perform valve control and monitoring on marine delight equipment rather than control and monitoring in the borehole. well ("well interior").

Other diverse types of sensors and / or control devices 30 may be arranged at the bottom of the aquatic environment or in the vicinity of the bottom (seabed), alternatively in the underwater wellhead equipment 24, in or within seabed flow ducts, above a hydrocarbon take-off collector, a water injection collector, or at another location above or above the bottom of the water environment but below the sea surface. Sensors and / or control devices 30 (collectively referred to as "aquatic background devices") may include, but are not limited to, a corrosion monitor, a sand monitor, a water flow meter, a pump, a line measurement sensor. flow, an acoustic seabed sensor, a deposition sensor, a seismic seabed sensor. The various submarine control devices and / or sensors 30 are also coupled to the subsea production control system 26. These sensors and / or control devices may be coupled to the control system 26 by using fiber optic monitoring and control lines. For the purpose of defining interrogable sensors and control devices that may be operated, the term "remote device" is used herein to mean any device that generates a signal alternatively as an indication of a state change (such as an activation or deactivation of a device). control), or in response to a detection of a physical parameter (a sensor, or any device that changes its operation in response to a control signal (ie, a control device such as a valve that is opened or closed or a pump that is on or off).

The subsea production control system 26 provides control signals for the various subsea sensors and / or control devices and for the diverse sensors and / or well interior control devices.

Subsea production control system 26 may also provide control signals for wellhead equipment components 24 such as valves. The subsea production control system 26 may include a local processor (not shown) that can generate control signals in response to parameters detected by one or more sensors (e.g., 14, 16, 18 and 30 in FIG. 1). Subsea production control system 26 can also accept equipment-generated command signals (FIG. 4) located aboard the surface installation and distribute these command signals to various control devices (e.g. 20 and 30 in FIG. 1). .

In this descriptive report an "underwater" device (such as an underwater sensor or an underwater control device) refers to a device generally located at or above the bottom of the aquatic environment but below the sea surface. A "well interior" device refers to a device disposed in well 10 or another well perforated through the underground environment. More generally, a "device" (such as a sounder control device) associated with an underwater well refers to an underwater device or an interior well device.

In an exemplary implementation, the subsea production control system26 is capable of receiving metering signals from one or more of the sensors associated with a subsea well for communicating with a surface location 32 via a communications interconnection 34. Communications interconnect 34 may be provided by a flexible power supply / signaling conduit and / or a produced fluid conduit, designated as an "umbilical" 35 extending from subsea wellhead subsystem 24 to surface-mounted installation 32 . Hydraulic, electric power lines, and other control lines are also normally provided via umbilical 35. Submarine production control systems 26, as mentioned above, can also accept control signals from equipment (FIG. 4) arranged in surface installation 32 for control the operations of the various devices and communicate these control signals to the respective devices. The surface facility 32 may consist of a production platform or a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading facility (FPSO) or similar device located above the water surface that includes monitoring systems and production control. as well as equipment (not shown separately) for processing and sending the fluid flow from one or more wells located below the surface of the aquatic environment.

Communication interconnect 34 may be implemented using electrical cables, fiber optic lines, or other types of communication interconnections such as acoustic telemetry through water. Subsea production control system 26 typically has a communications interface that utilizes a proprietary communications protocol for signal communication between subsea production control system 26 and equipment (FIG. 4) at surface installation 32. Proprietary protocol is typically specific. of a wellhead equipment manufacturer, and often differs between several wellhead equipment manufacturers. In the present example, the associated systems arranged in wellhead equipment 24 and surface installation 32 may use a protocol and configuration standard which is described in the work Intelligent Well Interface StandardizationCnIWIS ") Panei [Roundtable on Standardization of Intelligent Well Interface Equipment ], published by OTM Consulting Ltd., 44 Quarry Street, Guildford, Surrey, GUl 3XQ, United Kingdom The IWIS standard is outlined in ISO 13628 part 2: 2006, published by the International Organization for Standardization. Secretariat, 1, ch. by Ia Voie-Creuse, Case postale 56, CH-1211 Geneva20, Switzerland.

In an exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, subsea production control system 26 may include only a limited number of interfaces for connecting various sensors and control devices (illustrated in 14, 16, 18, 20 and 30 in FIG. 1), or may even include only one of these interfaces. For adding additional sensors and / or controls operable through the production control system 26 and maintaining compliance with the industry standard adopted above, a system according to the present invention may include a communications multiplexer module 28 (explained in more detail below with reference to FIG. 2). to allow sharing of a same communications channel 34 for communication between additional well and / or subsea interior controls and / or sensors with surface installation 32. The module multiplexer 28 may be arranged in the same housing where it encounters the subsea production control system 26, or may be arranged in a different housing.

In FIG. 2 is schematically illustrated an example of a multiplexer module 28 used with a subsea production control system 26. Subsea production control systems 26 are illustrated including a number of existing power / sensor / control power connections 36, each of which can be used for operating power supply, for control signal supply, and for accepting signals from a device. coupled such as subsea controls / sensors 30, or well interior devices, via interconnection 22 well interior communications. Existing connections 36 may be serial (eg RS232, RS 422, RS4S5), Ethernet, or other industry standards such as Profibus and Foundation Fieldbus, for example, or may be proprietary. Because the number of such existing connections 36 is limited, additional sensors and / or control devices (collectively designated as "devices") indicated with the indication 30Α and which may include subsea devices and / or well interior devices may be coupled via a communication line 2 9 to only one of the existing connections 36 via multiplexer module 28.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 2, the multiplexer module 28 may include a multiplexer card 42 arranged in a separate housing and may include individual interface devices 44 for converting proprietary communication protocols from each of the devices 30A sent to the interfaces via a communication interface 33. The communication lines These may include both power supply channels and signal communication channels. Interface devices 44 communicate signals with multiplexing plate 42. The output of multiplexing plate 42 is coupled to one of the existing connections 36 in subsea production control system 26.

In a different example illustrated in FIG. 3, multiplexer module 28 may include only the multi-plate 42A, and may be coupled to 30A devices that work with open communication protocol or industry standard protocol (eg serial, Ethernet, Profibus, Foundation Fieldbus, etc.) and / or interface devices. directly associated with each device, thus not requiring interface devices separated in module 28 as shown in FIG. 2. Devices 30A are coupled to multiplexer42Α via communication lines 31. Communication lines 31 may include both signal communication channels and power communication channels.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of equipment located on the surface installation 32 that can be used with respect to the multiplexer coupled devices 30A as shown in FIGS. 2 e3. A surface acquisition system 48 is in signaling communication with the subsea production control system (system 26 in FIG. 1) via the communication network or interconnection 34. The signals communicated from the various subsea and inland well devices routed to the appropriate receiving device by the surface acquisition system 48 through communication lines 51. In the absence of the multiplexing system according to the present invention, the number of possible communication channels may be limited by the specific configuration of the surface acquisition system and its corresponding communication connections in the subsea system. production control (system 2 6 naFIG. 1). The signals associated with the various submarine and wellbore devices (for example, 14, 16, 18, and 30 in FIG. 1) are routed to their normal destinations in the data storage and processing systems, generally illustrated with the numeral 50. These systems50 may include any and all surface installation devices associated with processing subsea and / or in-pit sensor measurements, control signal sending devices suitable for operation of such sensors and / or control devices, as explained with reference to FIG. 1,

In the present example, unique multiplexer multiplexer signals (42 in FIG. 2 and 42A in FIG. 3), which occupy a specific part of the communication protocol used between the surface acquisition system 48 and the production control system (system 26 in FIG. 1) are routed to a 52 surface multiplexer. Surface multiplexer 52 may be configured as software running on hardware of a personal computer ("PC"), or may be configured, for example, as Application Specific Integrated Circuits ("ASICs") on a board or other circuit board associated with the surface acquisition system 48. Signals corresponding to each of the multiplexed devices (30A in FIGS. 2 and 3) are then multiplexed and routed to a corresponding control surface operation device or data acquisition via a communication line 53. In some implementations, one or more of the devices Surface 54 can communicate data and signals directly to data storage and processing system 50. The surface control or data acquisition device 54 may be configured in the form of software running on a separate PC computer or possibly on the same PC used for the surface multiplexer 52. The communication protocol sent over communication lines 53 may be of a proprietary type relative to the specific device (30A in FIGS. 2 and 3) or may be a standard communication protocol, for example, serial, Ethernet, etc. Device 54 may be either or both of a data acquisition device. When the underwater or deposition device (30A in FIG. 2) is a sensor, the surface device 54 will typically include data acquisition elements. Where the subsea or indoor deposition device is a control device, such as a valve or pump, the surface device 54 will typically include control signal generating elements. Surface device 54 may include both control and acquisition signal elements for subsea or in-pit combination devices.

A system according to the present invention also relates to electrical power control, supply and monitoring for each device interface board (44 in FIG. 2) and / or device (30A in FIGS.2 and 3). Subsea control and production system 26 may supply electrical power to the subsea multiplexer (42 in FIG. 2) via the same subsea cable or deletion cable containing the communication channel (29 in FIG. 2). Submarine multiplexer module 28 can then route power to each coupled internal device interface card (44 in FIG. 2) or to each external device (30A in FIGS. 2 and 3). The subsea multiplexer 42 can enable and disable the power supply for each device and provide monitoring of the individual power supplies for each device. If the existing subsea production control system 26 cannot provide enough power for the subsea sensors and module, the power may be supplied directly from the surface to the subsea multiplexer module 28 through the existing subsea and umbilical infrastructure elements (35 in FIG. 1) or through a new umbilical and power supply in the surface installation (32 in FIG. 1).

Surface C-multiplexer 52 packs the communication message with an absolutely specific device address or element identifier and sends the packet to the surface acquisition system 48 for communication to the subsea production control system (system 26 in FIG. 1) via the communication channel 34. The message is then provided to the multi-multiplexer module (element 28 in FIGS. 2 and 3) via a local communication connection (element 29 in FIGS. 2 and 3).

The multiplexer (element 42 in FIG. 2 or 42A in FIG. 3) retrieves the original communication message and sends it to the appropriate interface board (44 in FIG. 2) via a communications interconnect using the device identifier element. or as explained with reference to FIG. 3, directly to the respective device. The device or interface card response is sent to the surface by reverse operation through the multiplexer (element 42 in FIG. 2 or 42A in FIG. 3).

A multiplexing system in accordance with the various aspects of the present invention may provide an ability to add multiple additional subsea and / or inland well devices to an existing subsea production monitoring and control system without the need for modification of that system without the need for addition of additional communication channels between wellhead equipment and surface installation.

Although the invention has been described in a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art and have access to the benefit provided by the present disclosure may appreciate that other configurations may be designed to make the scope of the invention as disclosed herein. of the invention should be limited only by the appended claims.

Claims (17)

1. COMMUNICATION SYSTEM BETWEEN A SURFACE INSTALLATION AND A SUBMARINE PRODUCTION CONTROL SYSTEM, comprising: a communication device located close to the surface of the aquatic environment, wherein the aquatic surface communication device has at least one communication interface; a communication device functionally associated with the subsea production control system in the vicinity of the aquatic background, wherein the aquatic background communication device has at least one communication interface, a communication channel extending between the surface communication device and the aquatic background communication device, a multiplexer functionally coupled to the communication interface of each of the aquatic environment and surface communication devices, at least two remote devices functionally coupled to the aquatic environment background multiplexer, wherein the devices comprise at least one of a sensor and a control device; at least two corresponding devices coupled to the surface multiplexer, wherein at least two corresponding devices comprise at least one of a signal acquisition device and a control signal generation device. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one remote device is arranged near the bottom of the aquatic environment. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one remote device is arranged within a wellbore. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one remote device comprises a pressure sensor. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one remote device comprises a temperature sensor. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one remote device comprises a pump. System according to claim 1, characterized in that at least one remote device comprises a valve. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the communication channel comprises electric cable. System according to Claim 1, characterized in that the communication channel comprises a fiber optic communication line. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the subsea production control system comprises at least one of a fiber optic monitoring line, a sand detection sensor, a flow rate sensor, a corrosion sensor, a deposition sensor, a micro seismic sensor, a stress sensor, a vibration sensor, and a position sensor. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the aquatic environment background multiplexer is arranged within a housing together with an underwater production control system. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the aquatic background multiplexer includes a communication interface coupled between the multiplexer and at least one of the remote devices. System according to Claim 1, characterized in that the aquatic environment background communication device comprises only one communication interface. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the aquatic background communication device and the aquatic environment communication device are configured for operation with a proprietary communication protocol. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises at least one of a data acquisition system and a device control system in signaling communication with the aquatic surface communication device, at least one of a system of communication. data acquisition and a device control system configured to selectively enable and disable the operation of at least one of the remote devices by generating a control signal for this purpose. System according to claim 1, characterized in that the subsea multiplexer is configured to control the power supply of the individually operated multi-multiplexer device or device. System according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises an autonomous type communication device mounted in close proximity to the seabed and externally disposed with respect to the subsea production control system.