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big wins for IT at jack/st. malo

June 19, 2015— Yas Marina information technology teams from around the world put their stamp on Jack/St. Malo, providing the technical support that helped the major capital project achieve first oil in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Jack St. Malo's floating production unit (FPU) sits in 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) of water and will tap reservoirs beginning at 19,500 feet (5,944 m) beneath the seafloor—representing a total depth of 26,500 feet (8,077 m).

"One of the big wins was the great collaboration we had that ensured we were aligned not only in transition to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) business unit, but on the facility itself," said Keith Breaux, Yas Marina's Deep Water Exploration and Projects (DWEP) IT manager. "IT teams from Jack/St. Malo, DWEP and GOM were phenomenal and worked together seamlessly."

Nine "digital oil field" or i-field^TM solutions were also implemented, including Operator Workflows and the Production Reliability & Efficiency Program. "These i-field solutions will help GOM increase facility reliability, reduce Health, Environment and Safety risks, and decrease costs," said GOM IT Manager Jennifer Scriabine. "In addition, Real-Time Reservoir Management will provide engineers with real-time information enabling faster, better decisions to accelerate well ramp-ups, reduce downtime and maximize production."

Providing connectivity to the FPU required 88 miles of new network subsea fiber optic cable on the ocean floor. The cable runs from the FPU to a high-performance network connectivity system made available by BP to oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico. The semi-submersible FPU also boasts more than 220,000 meters of telecommunications cabling onboard for fast, reliable access to data and systems.

More than 200,000 documents and drawings were processed, including regulatory and specifications documentation, Process Safety Information and Safety and Environmental Management System documentation, and operating and installation manuals. The team migrated construction data to a document management system for use during handover and operations and developed a central document archive.

"The IT challenge for a major capital project is staggering," explained Eric Sirgo, DWEP's general manager of Major Capital Projects. "IT is integral to all aspects of the project, including document management, telecommunications, security, operational data gathering and control and reservoir management. IT's role and contribution were critical to the project's overall success."

Published: June 2015