ProtoLink was chosen by a major oil production company to deliver an automatic
well test system based on Wonderware Factory Suite 2000. The client's decision
to use Wonderware's PC-based control package, InControl, represented a first
for the oil and gas industry.
The system is comprised of a single host and twenty-seven remote sites in a
forty square mile region. Each remote site is equipped with a Xycom panel-mount
industrial PC, GE Genius I/O modules, and a wireless ethernet LAN adapter.
ProtoLink developed a self-configuring InControl application to coordinate
automatic well tests, perform system safety checks, and facilitate manual
operations when necessary. This application also communicates with flow meters
using Modbus and with variable speed drives via Profibus.
All sites share a common InTouch application for viewing and controlling well
test operations. This ProtoLink application enables operators at any location
to easily view and control operations at all remote sites. It also provides
system-wide reporting, alarming, trending, and well test scheduling
capabilities. The latter is accomplished through incorporation of a custom
ProtoLink ActiveX control. This sophisticated InTouch application automatically
alters its graphics based on the types and quantities of equipment present at
the monitored site.
Test data collected at each site is buffered locally before being inserted into
a central database located at the host site. This guarantees that results will
not be lost if the central database is unavailable. A custom
ProtoLink-developed NT service inserts buffered records into the central
database and monitors the database for system configuration updates. When such
updates are discovered, the service notifies the InControl application, which
in turn causes the InTouch application to automatically alter its graphics as
described above.
The host site supports validation, modification, and reporting of test and
production data through a custom, ProtoLink-developed, web application named
Well Test Manager. ProtoLink also configured an alarm notification
system to alert operators of upset conditions via telephone and pager.
