To date, RFID in the oil and gas industry has not been used as ubiquitously as in other fields. The reason for this lack of adoption is not that there are no good applications here; quite to the contrary, according to results of a detailed mapping of RFID opportunities in the oil and gas industry that we recently performed at the RFID and Supply Chain Systems Lab at Texas A&M University.
What is the reason for this disconnect? Two factors are crucial: a lack of a clear and quantitative understanding of benefits, and a lack of well-defined standards that would make RFID interoperable among the oil and gas industry.
For our analysis, we focused on applications of RFID for drilling equipment such as casing tubing, drill pipe, collars, and couplings. The reason for this choice was that preliminary analysis indicated that a majority of benefits and majority of potential complications would occur in this area.
For drilling equipment, we can roughly classify benefits as traditional asset tracking and industry-unique rig applications. Traditional asset tracking solutions applied to the drilling equipment supply chain mean tagging individual casing, pipe, or collars to achieve visibility across the supply chain from manufacturing to distribution to the rig. Besides the minor complication of having to attach and successfully read RFID tags to metal objects, this is a well-understood process that can be readily adapted from best practices in other industries.
RFID at the rig
First, RFID tags can be used to ensure integrity of the drill string. Tags can monitor workers: using the designated drill pipe in the correct position, using the correct coupling and collars, inserting the right casing, etc. This is accomplished via RFID tag reads of the drill pipe and comparison of that drill pipe’s specifications (cross-linked via the tag identifier to a database) before the pipe is connected and run downhole.
Second, using RFID tags can improve the inspection and recertification process of used drill pipe. This is an important aspect because stress cracks may appear suddenly and visual inspection is not a reliable indicator of future pipe performance. A complementary and perhaps better indicator is to use history information on the drill pipe (e.g., hours used, environmental factors, position in drill string) to predict the expected remaining lifetime. Staff can extract this history data on individual drill pipe from RFID data logs.
An industry standard is needed to ensure interoperability of tags (for example, embedded in drill pipe) with the RFID systems along the supply chain and at the rig.
Requirements
Establishing an RFID interoperability standard should address:
- Tag and reader design—casing that can withstand environmental stresses.
- Tag application—where and how to embed the tag.
- Tag data storage—what data need to be stored on a tag. This is not trivial. Problems with network connectivity at rigs in remote locations suggests that a unique identifier cross-referenced to a central database, as in the EPC Global retail standard, may need to be complemented by additional on-tag read and write fields.
- Air interface between tag and reader. This may be different for different applications and dual-mode tags.
- Interface between tag and sensors—temperature, pressure, salinity, etc.
Our study suggests that the business case for RFID in oil and gas is there—in particular in today’s environment characterized by a renewed emphasis on process efficiency. Now it’s time to launch the discussion about standards.
The author
Gary M. Gaukler ([email protected]) is an assistant professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University and is the director of TAMU’s RFID and supply chain systems lab. He is a supporting member of the oil and gas RFID solution group standards development board and has published in academic and business journals on the topics of RFID in retail, inventory control, supply chain management, and manufacturing. Gaukler holds a BSc (1998) in engineering and management science from Universität Karlsruhe, an MS (2000) in industrial and systems engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, an MS (2003) in operations research from Stanford University, and a PhD (2005) in management science and engineering from Stanford.
