Vertical integration approach for the intelligent Oil & Gas field

Abstract

Abstract The oil and gas industry envisions a smarter way of running their business where they can visualize their entire operation, call and retrieve production data effortlessly and seamlessly, collaborating across the entire enterprise to decrease production costs while increasing recovery. The so-called Intelligent Oil Field (IOF) promotes reference architectures and development approaches that improve the flexibility and efficiency of upstream and downstream process. In this sense, OPC UA provides local and remote access to plant information, allowing horizontal and vertical integration in a reliable, safe and efficient way. This article contributes an open IOF architecture for vertical integration based on cyber-physical production systems, configured under IEC 61499 and using OPC UA. Therefore, the proposal is suitable to achieve flexible manufacturing.