Cooperation with AK Transneft JSC to implement supervisory control and data acquisition system for crude oil pipeline system.

Location: Russian Federation
Order date: 1995
Completion: 1998
Industry: Oil transportation / Oil&Gas

Executive Summary

AK Transneft JSC is a state-owned transportation company. EleSy started cooperation with the largest oil pipe-line operator in Russia in 1994.

In 1995 the EleSy became the main contractor and designer of the Transneft's SCADA.

AK Transneft's SCADA, together with facility level monitoring and control systems, in the general case is the four-tier layered distributed control system. The facility level involves territorial, regional and local control systems. Preceding systems were created at different times and were equipped with different technical means; different software and operation systems were set up. The AK Transneft's SCADA universalized the oil transportation control procedure.

The Transneft oil trunk pipelines transmit about 93% of all the oil produced in Russia; the length of the pipelines is about 48,000 km. Until now, the SCADA implemented by EleSy has had no analogues of its scale in the world. In 1998 the EleSy received international recognition owing to the project. The project headed the list in the Microsoft contest.

Challenges and Scope of Work

The Transneft oil pipe-line network encompasses the major part of the Russian territory, from Bryansk on the west to Angarsk on the east, from Novorossiysk down south to Usinsk in the north. The total network length is about 50,000 km.

Today the oil transportation process management involves 4,500 of automatics and telemechanics systems, 2,500 screen forms, 7,792 line pipe gate valves. Control action of such a complex Fuel and Energy company facilities required the creation of the SCADA. It was necessary to construct a flexible control system corresponding to the growth dynamics of requirements and to the follow-on of technology park of equipment.

SCADA Basic Functionality

• Operation control and process management system.
• Transfer of management commands.
• Events logging and alerting about the accidents.
• Collection, processing, storage and visualization of data.
• Information support, dispatching control, process planning and monitoring.
• Development, management and configuration of the control process.

Solutions

The SCADA was initially implemented on Genesis platform (Iconics, USA), but that control system was not able to cover the increasing requirements. EleSy designed its own SCADA Infinity. This system provided the sufficient level of reliability, management and control for the oil pumping and transportation linear part, as well as for 399 pumping stations and 856 crude storages within the 48,000 km of the oil trunk pipeline.

All required information on the pipe-line system state passes on the real-time basis to the main AK Transneft operation and maintenance center in Moscow. Along all pipeline system ELSY-2000 controllers record millions of parameters responding to any process changes within seconds.

Pipeline Application Software

• Pressure control, estimation of a spillage and pipeline tapping capability is performed by EleSy's GIDROUKLON software tool;
• Implementation of Transneft's technical regulations of pipeline operation is performed by means of EleSy's STOROZH software;
• Management of crude oil tank farms is performed by EleSy's PARK application;
• EleSy's Infinity Reports provides generation of complex reports based on real-time and historical data.

Personnel Training

The up-to-date and high-tech SCADA equipment requires availability of efficient personnel. EleSy has training centers in Tomsk and Moscow, where supervisors, operators, technicians and other personnel are trained.

Results

The Transneft's SCADA system was put into commission in 1997. The system is constantly in progress. Over the last years a lot of new functions were realized, many advanced features were implemented; all this made crude oil transportation more efficient and safe.