Haul Truck Analysis

Challenge

Liquid hydrocarbons are stored at a tank battery after removal from natural gas. The amount stored varies on the production rate from the well gathering stations. In cases where no pipelines exist, it is necessary to move the liquids to another site by truck. The challenge is to minimize the number of truck hauls, logistics contracts are a business cost, while preventing tank overfills. The analytics developed enabled optimization of truck hauls by scheduling truck hauls in the logistics system based upon the real-time process data at the tank batteries.

Solution

The approach taken was:

• The tank levels at the battery were analysed to show the number of truck hauls over a period of time.
• The Seeq formulas calculated the amount transferred in each shipment.
• Metrics were created to show shipment frequency in relation of volume of hydrocarbon liquid produced.

Benefits

The benefits from the analytics were:

• Eliminating manual data entry, improving efficiency and reducing human error
• Reduced truck hauls by 2 trucks being scheduled redundantly to ship liquid hydrocarbons at similar times
• Improved decision making through more timely data

Data Sources

• Process Data Historian: OSIsoft PI

Data Cleansing

• Signal filtering so good rate of change could be calculated

Calculations and Capsules

• Detect truck loading from tank level change
• Calculate change in inventory (transferred to truck)
• Monitor rate of tankage level increase to schedule truck hauls

Summarizing Results

• Significant reduction in effort and time to understand truck transfers
• Reduction in costs due to double-booking trucks at specific tank batteries low-flow events and confidently operate otherwise.