Creating a Secure IT Infrastructure for the Kuwait Intelligent Digital Field

Abstract

As oilfields mature and new fields come into operation, real time asset management of reserves is providing ongoing challenges to Kuwait Oil Company (KOC). Fewer engineers are managing more wells under increasingly tougher environmental conditions and compliance regulations. The combination of these factors has driven the need for KOC to make a step change in its approach to operations by incorporating digital field concepts to transform the way engineers are working. The result is the Kuwait Intelligent Digital Field initiative. To enable KwIDF, new technologies were deployed in both mature and immature assets, creating issues in terms of interoperability and integration thereby increasing the strain on the legacy IT infrastructure. In addition, there was the requirement to isolate the SCADA industrial networks from the corporate business networks while automating traffic control with the various enterprise data systems. This ‘managed’ separation complicated the delivery of productivity tools to employees and posed the greatest challenge to creating a transparent, seamless KwIDF infrastructure. The KwIDF Jurassic project was particularly challenging since it had the most limited existing infrastructure, requiring the design and deployment of an entirely new architecture scattered over significant distances and business areas. This in turn created significant hurdles in terms of integration and compatibility with the remainder of KOC’s proprietary systems and technologies. Specific efforts were required to allow KOC’s network infrastructure to be capable of embracing such solutions and technologies with proper security measures in place. Developing a network infrastructure to enable real time solutions for KwIDF Jurassic involved analyzing the specific business drivers of the asset to ensure that the capital investment not only delivered results, but did so within a secure environment. This paper presents the methodology employed by KOC’s Corporate IT Group (CITG) to deliver the right network infrastructure, along with lessons learned, for enabling the Kuwait Intelligent Digital Field Jurassic project.