With the environment being an ever pressing concern in the oil and gas industry, José Vicente Solano Ferrández, HEADS project leader, takes a closer look at how Repsol’s innovative technology is enabling the early detection of oil spills.
One of Repsol’s most important facilities is the Technology Centre, where over 400 researchers work for the industry.
The environmental impact of oil and gas spills has never been more visible, nor under as much public scrutiny. The increase in offshore drilling activity has brought the subject of oil spills even higher up the list of priorities for oil and gas companies, and every oil and gas company needs to demonstrate it is equipped to deal with such a scenario.
In fact, it is the detection of oil-spill events that is the key to environmental protection and incident management. Safety measures that can quickly and accurately identify problems remotely or in an automated fashion are vital; however, until now, technology has lacked the sensitivity and specificity in detecting the early onset of a small-scale oil-spill event.
Partnership
As a response to the need to be able to quickly and accurately identify even the smallest of oils spills, Repsol and Indra recently joined forces to develop a groundbreaking technology called HEADS (hydrocarbon early and automatic detection system). Based on highly advanced infrared sensors, radars and superfast algorithms, HEADS has the ability to achieve unprecedented detection of oil spills.
The combined use of these different technologies maximises the probability of detection and minimises the likelihood of false alarms. The technology boasts a 90% spill-detection rate, compared with an average of 65% for existing systems. The associated computer has artificial intelligence, giving it the ability to teach itself while monitoring for spills, increasing its effectiveness over time. This automatic ‘hybrid’ system can also operate in complete darkness (at night) making its effectiveness greater wherever it is deployed, and it can detect spills of as little as 10L.
The tool is coupled with a system that can automatically identify vessels that are in the vicinity of the sensors, helping to avoid collisions as well as identifying ships correctly in the case of an oil spill.
Development
The HEADS project was formally initiated in October 2011, followed by four key stages of rigorous testing. The first stage, to value technical-economic viability, was carried out at the Repsol Technology Centre. The remaining phases were carried out through the use of two pilot studies at Repsol’s Tarragona Industrial Complex and the Casablanca platform. The project took a total of 21 months to develop and included the work of 25 people, excluding the company’s employees working at the Tarragona and Casablanca complexes. The project was put into commercial use in July 2013 and underwent further fine tuning until the end of 2013.
How it works
The HEADS system is made up of three main elements. The first one is infrared sensors capable of detecting differences in temperature and emissions of different substances. The infrared system is able to endure severe weather conditions, by lowering infrared activity when temperatures drop 0.5°C or below. The second element is the oil-spill detection radar that is used in conjunction with the infrared sensors to improve the system’s efficiency as the radar is able to operate at full capacity even in adverse weather conditions. It can reach distances of up to 5km.
The third element that HEADS consists of is two control algorithms. The first algorithm was designed to detect and set off an alarm through the infrared sensor. The second algorithm integrates the signals of both sensors and, based on these signals and the weather conditions, decides whether to sound the alarm that signals an oil spill.
HEADS is not only conceived as an upstream application, but can also be useful for ports, harbours and installations where large volumes of hydrocarbons are stored or managed. Because the system can detect very small spills, it can also be deployed to identify accidental oil releases caused by shipping.
This first stage of the project contemplates surface application, but work is already underway to deploy the system to subsea application and also on the development of a fully automated response deployment.
Advanced technology
HEADS is capable of detecting even tiny amounts of oil in or on water through the use of two types of advanced surveillance technology – long-range radar capabilities and precise infrared thermal imaging. No other system exists that combines multiple sensors of different technologies with algorithms and an automated response. The technology has a positive patentability report and the co-presentation from Repsol and Indra of a patent (PCT) on 4 July 2012. The partners are in the process of seeking a worldwide patent to protect the technology developed for HEADS.
The radar scans the sea water for anomalies in its echo. Each scan revolution takes only three seconds. Meanwhile, the infrared cameras scan the sea areas continuously for between 20-60 seconds. When the radar then locates what it thinks may be possible oil emissions, the system automatically sends orders to the cameras that will confirm whether it is an emitted substance. Substances that are not considered oil emissions are then discarded by the automatic detection algorithm of the infrared camera. Once oil emissions are indeed confirmed, an alarm is activated in the control console and the appropriate processes are executed in order to attend to the oil spill.
The decision algorithm takes into account the weaknesses and strengths of the technology of each sensor and the weather conditions to balance the decision, and so ensures the best system performance.
This system is modular and scalable, and could be adapted to any topology using different combinations of thermal and radar sensors.
Another important feature of HEADS is its capacity to identify ships in a particular area using AIS (automatic identification system). The purpose of the AIS system is to allow ships to communicate their position and other relevant information so that other ships or stations can track them and avoid collisions. This means that if an incident is caused by a vessel within HEADS’ detection range it can record its registration number and monitor the event.
In addition to significantly increasing reliability of detection in any incident on the water’s surface, night or day and even in bad weather conditions, HEADS has a response time of less than two minutes, minimising the impact and acting faster to resolve it.
With many of the world’s largest oil fields beginning to mature and the peak production of oil beginning to decline, companies are turning to extracting oil and gas trapped in more challenging environments such as deeper offshore basins. As a result, the industry requires technology to keep pace with such developments in order to maximise safety and prevent environmental disasters. This need for effective safety and detection methods is also driven by the increasing trend for offshore operators to explore more remote reservoirs where sophisticated technology is required to mitigate the risks associated with such activities. HEADS is an example of how the industry, by working in partnership, can help respond to the increased threats to safety created by deepwater drilling through the ongoing development of technology and innovation.