How 70-year-old Abqaiq Plants transformed to become a 4IR leader

The World Economic Forum (WEF) highlights world leaders in 4IR technology through its Global Lighthouse Network (GLN). They've reported that many companies have struggled with taking their 4IR plans beyond the pilot stage. By showcasing successful projects, and supporting the sharing of expertise, the aim of the GLN is to inspire companies and industries to embrace 4IR technologies and their potential to transform their operations.

Abqaiq Plants is our third site to be admitted to the GLN by the WEF's panel of global experts, following the Khurais oil field and the 'Uthmaniyah gas processing plant. All three sites are examples of how 4IR technology can be used to render oil and gas production more sustainable. 

Unique challenges 

A successful digital transformation starts at the infrastructure level. The technology infrastructure of most old oil and gas facilities relies on legacy and de-centralized systems to carry out its processes. 

What these old and outdated systems do is distribute critical data across several systems and applications inside the facility — meaning it is hard to easily access data, and interpret it or use it in collaborations.

Working with this infrastructure, employees at Abqaiq Plants had to manually analyze the data in order to troubleshoot or optimize processes. They were also used to legacy systems, and processes developed over many years, and to carrying out sometimes mundane, occasionally hazardous, tasks. 

Transformation roadmap

Reinventing Abqaiq Plants meant creating the right roadmap to help ensure a smooth digital transformation journey. 

This roadmap incorporated many approaches, including: using a centralized technology management database to identify promising technologies, collaborating with technology providers on pilot projects, and establishing a dedicated 4IR technology center to accelerate collaboration and knowledge sharing. 

The roadmap also helped encourage the sharing of data across teams to enhance the value of the technologies used, and supported the development of new and innovative solutions. The availability of data across teams was improved through the use of an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) infrastructure. And helping employees embrace the use of technology was always front and center, with new skill development encouraged through dedicated courses and programs. 

4IR technology offers a great opportunity to free workers from mundane tasks, equipping them with new skills and allowing them to take on more rewarding roles and responsibilities. At Abqaiq Plants, a safety inspector can retrain as a drone pilot, flying an unmanned vehicle to the top of a facility to carry-out inspections, rather than climbing scaffolding to reach it. They can then use their experience to examine the data and identify potential faults. Robots and drones are now the norm and are used to perform almost a third of routine operations checklists, such as safety inspections.

Employees also use AI to monitor the oil stabilization process — a partial distillation process that makes crude oil suitable for storage or pipeline transportation. 

Intelligent Sensors monitor every part of the stabilization process and AI analyzes the data to detect abnormalities, identify the cause, and provide recommendations on corrective actions. The system might decide, for instance, that less steam is required to stabilize a particular oil stream. Reducing the steam used means less energy is needed and the environmental footprint is lower.