Aramco’s sustainability initiatives and future technology deployments attracts global recognition

Aramco’s Khurais Producing Department (KhPD) has scooped a major award recognizing sustainability from the prestigious World Finance magazine.

The technological advancement of the Khurais facility has been instrumental in the facility winning the award, namely, “Most Sustainable Company in the Energy and Chemical Industry — 2022.”

World Finance is a quarterly print and online magazine providing comprehensive coverage and analysis of the financial industry, international business, and the global economy.

From the rollout of intelligent machinery to the industrial deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), KhPD is undergoing a fundamental digital transformation that is creating new possibilities, targeting further enhancements in efficiency, safety, and the reduction of CO₂ emissions. 

Driving performance

In a highly competitive industry, KhPD continues to drive performance, innovation, and sustainability through the deployment of cutting-edge technologies. 

Welcoming the latest accolade for KhPD, manager, Salah A. Al-Juaidan, said that advanced technologies are now a part of the fabric of the facility.

“These new technologies are helping us to achieve breakthroughs in many fronts, such as efficiency, safety, and reducing emissions,” he said. “In addition, these factors have inspired a new wave of technological development within the department where we deployed Fourth Industrial Revolution solutions across our operations, from subsurface all the way to the central facility, to optimize the resources and unlock new opportunities.”

Al-Juaidan said that KhPD employees are heavily involved in the continuous implementation of the company’s Fourth Industrial Revolution roadmap.

“KhPD strongly believes that by relying on the highly capable team to drive these initiatives together with a built-in infrastructure that is available, will make this objective attainable,” he added. 

Khurais is one of the largest intelligent oil fields in the world, equipped with more than 40,000 Industrial Internet of Things devices, which enables remote operation using high speed infrastructure. 

The site harnesses big data analytics, machine learning, smart sensors, and a remaining useful life forecasting system. Industrial robotics and UAVs perform inspection functions, improving diagnostic capabilities and efficiency. 

Khurais is also the first oil field with Advanced Process Control for smart production rate adjustments.

Safety and environmental performance

This feature contributes to an improvement in safety and environmental performance. 

“These advanced technologies have enabled us to reduce overall power consumption at Khurais by 18%, slash maintenance costs by 30% and cut inspection times by 40%. In addition, they have enhanced reliability by 50% and increased operational response times by 100%. Technology has helped to ensure uninterrupted production throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” noted Al-Juaidan. 

“In this context, the World Finance award is a welcome reminder of the potential for Khurais’ industrial innovation to connect real-world manufacturing assets with cutting-edge digital capabilities to realize better performance, both safely and sustainably.”

Pioneering technologies

KhPD has pioneered many upstream technologies. The facility has constructed complex wells with advanced completions. 

These have higher costs than conventional wells, but have the potential to provide significant reward in the future. Multilateral and maximum reservoir contact (MRC) wells have been a part of operations, producing only from multilateral MRC wells in fork and fishbone shapes. 

KhPD is also among the early adopters of fit-for-purpose completions, also known as “advanced smart completions.” Devices manage and reduce water production, leading to reduced power consumption and CO₂ emissions, while optimizing production from each segment of the lateral. 

Digital transformation

In addition, at producing facilities we are exploiting digital transformation benefits on several fronts, including: 

• Capitalizing on smart field infrastructure to more effectively monitor and control oil wells remotely to optimize oil production. 

• Developing an in-house smart performance solution, using machine learning and both predictive and prescriptive analytics. The solution instilled a proactive culture, contributed to fuel gas savings, resulted in CO₂ emission reductions, and has been granted two U.S. patents.

• Deploying the first Intelligent Reliability Center where big data is a centric axis. This center is a digital monitoring hub that provides an early alert notification for any abnormality or malfunction in critical equipment. 

Caption for top photo: The Khurais Producing Department, through rollout of intelligent machinery to the industrial deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), is undergoing a fundamental digital transformation that is creating new possibilities, targeting further enhancements in efficiency, safety, and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions (Photo by: Hasan Al-Mubarak)