自动化技术让石油钻井平台更加安全和高效

据9月28日NS Energy报道，虽然之前在钻井平台自动化的全面推广方面进展缓慢，但石油公司现在开始为海上设施配备自主钻井控制系统。

石油钻井平台的自动化有可能使海上钻井变得更加安全和高效，虽然，这一领域的进展一直不稳定。如今，自动化钻井控制(ADC)系统在北海石油钻井平台上的应用有望取得一定进展。《世界快报》撰稿人威尔·莫菲特（Will Moffitt）与海事咨询集团dnvgl的石油和天然气高级专家perivar Halleland进行了交谈，讨论了这项技术在21世纪石油钻井平台上的诸多好处，以及可能会遇到的一些阻碍。

30多年过去了，派珀·阿尔法(Piper Alpha)石油钻井平台的灾难仍令人记忆犹新。海底石油和天然气管道破裂，把这个曾经闪闪发光的1.4万吨产能的石油钻井平台变成了熊熊燃烧的火海，最后变成了被北海冰冷海水包裹的废墟。这场灾难夺去了167人的生命,到目前为止，它仍然是历史上最严重的石油钻井平台事故, 它时刻向人们警示着当工程系统出现故障时，海上钻井平台上的工人所面临的危险。

类似灾难如2010年墨西哥湾的“深水地平线”钻井平台爆炸事故，都在敦促各国政府和行业专家重新评估避免此类灾难的措施。而实现这一目标的一种方法是利用自动化系统，越来越多的海上石油钻井平台的建造者开始在其结构上装备自动化管道处理和脱扣系统，以消除人工干预的需要，并减少事故的发生。

事实上，当谈到自动化系统的潜在用途时，这些适度的改进只是冰山一角。例如，挪威石油天然气公司Equinor最近推出了首个完全自助的海上钻井平台，该平台能够在很少或不需要员工的情况下进行钻井作业。

与此同时，道达尔正在北海试用一种机器人，它可以读取刻度盘、仪表和阀门位置，并能独立检测天然气泄漏。

王佳晶 摘译自 NS Energy

原文如下：

How automation can make 21st-century offshore oil rigs safer and more efficient

While progress has previously been slow in rolling out the full capabilities of rig automation, oil firms are now starting to equip offshore installations with autonomous drilling control systems

Automation of oil rigs has the potential to make offshore drilling safer and more efficient, and yet, progress in this area has been fitful. Now, the introduction of automated drilling control (ADC) on North Sea oil rigs promises some measure of progress. World Expro writer Will Moffitt talks to Per Ivar Halleland, senior expert for oil and gas at maritime advisory group DNV GL, about the myriad benefits of this technology aboard 21st-century oil rigs, and the challenges that could stifle further implementation.

More than 30 years on, the footage of the Piper Alpha disaster is no less visceral. Ruptures to underlying oil and gas pipelines turned this once glinting, 14,000-tonne oil rig into a blazing inferno, and then a smouldering ruin lapped by the chilly waters of the North Sea. Speaking to The Guardian on the anniversary of the incident, survivor Charles Haffey described the eruption as “a welder’s blow torch” magnified by “thousands of times”.

Claiming 167 lives, the Piper Alpha disaster remains the deadliest oil rig accident in history, and it starkly revealed the dangers faced by workers on offshore drilling platforms when faulty engineering systems are at play – in particular, what can happen when a safety valve on a condensate injection pump is released without anyone knowing, spewing thousands of cubic feet of gas into the air.

The recurrence of similar disasters, most notably the 2010 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizonin the Gulf of Mexico, has led governments and industry experts to reassess how such calamities can be avoided.

One way to do this is through automation – increasingly, builders of offshore oil rigs are starting to equip their structures with automated pipe-handling and tripping systems to eliminate the need for human intervention, and to reduce the volume of accidents on board.

In fact, these modest improvements are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the potential uses for automated processes. Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor, for instance, has recently launched the first fully-autonomous offshore platform capable of performing drilling operations with little or no staff members.

Meanwhile, French multinational Total is trialling a robot in the North Sea that can read dials, gauges and valve positions, and detect gas leaks independently.