IT-OT Integration at Offshore Assets

Most of us have played Chinese whispers at some point of time in our lives and we know what fun it can be. It is a classic example of how information gets lost or distorted over a period when it goes through multiple channels. This kind of communication pattern can be dangerous in a professional atmosphere. Even a small distortion in data, or a small delay in communication can cause huge losses. The oil and gas industry has also lost a lot because data couldn't travel faster to the analysts. This is about to change.

Our wells, reservoirs, and assets generate data each day. Previously, this data would remain at asset sites and rarely travel to other centres or research teams where it could be analysed, unlocking its full potential. This gap will now be bridged as data from different assets will be integrated with centralised systems. This data will now be available for digital oil field solutions such as daily production reporting systems, production allocation and exception-based surveillance (EBS) systems.

Information Technology - Operations Technology (IT-OT) integration will lead to real-time monitoring of wells, and process/plant parameters at regular intervals. It will be accessible to all sites and offices which will help us in taking proactive decisions throughout the lifecycle of an asset. This will improve our HSE practices, reliability, increase accuracy in production reporting, and help in formulating a better version of the truth. We will be able to look at the past with retrospective analytics as well as predict the future. The integration layer will be capable of monitoring plant parameters in an intuitive way to support day-to-day operations and decision making. It will offer visuals of our operations to quickly identify issues that require attention through alerts, dashboards, trends, reports etc. It will also help in the management of role-based access rights.

One of the biggest challenges that IT-OT integration faces is cybersecurity threats. At Cairn, we are taking adequate measures to ensure data security. We are using a demilitarised zone (DMZ) for data security. The purpose of DMZ is to add an additional layer of security between IT and OT network: IT network node can access only what is exposed in the DMZ, while the OT network is protected and firewalled. It acts like a no-man's-land. The DMZ functions as a small, isolated network positioned between the IT public network and the OT private network. We have considered cyber security threats using the STRIDE model that covers threats like Spoofing of user identity, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure (privacy breach or data leak), Denial of service (D.o.S), and Elevation of privilege. Knowledge from Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) was also utilised to strengthen our security model.

As a part of Cairn’s digitalisation journey, we are integrating our offshore block at Cambay CB/OS-2, near Suvali, Gujarat, with corporate Historian. This system was already in place for our onshore assets years ago. IT-OT integration of offshore assets will provide the individual well status of three offshore platforms in real-time from any location. Before project Nirmaan, information that had to be processed or a decision that needed a data backup had to wait. Sending data from sites to the corporate office was a tedious process. With this integration, decision-making will become more streamlined.