Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Energy Administration, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Energy Field 5G Application Implementation Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan") to promote 5G applications in the energy field. With the characteristics of high speed, low latency, and large connections, 5G is an important strategic resource and new infrastructure to support the energy transition. "In the next 3 to 5 years, we will expand a batch of typical 5G application scenarios and build a batch of 5G industry private networks or virtual private networks around smart power plants, smart grids, smart coal mines, smart oil and gas, integrated energy, smart manufacturing and construction, etc. Explore the formation of a batch of competitive business models that can be replicated and easily promoted." The "Implementation Plan" pointed out.

Specific to the oil and gas field, the "Implementation Plan" proposes to explore independent networking solutions and applications of 5G in the petroleum and petrochemical industry, and build "intelligent oil and gas + 5G". From the perspective of industry insiders, the accelerated promotion and application of 5G technology will bring new opportunities and new changes to the oil and gas industry.

5G makes the oil and gas field more intelligent"

The four departments proposed in the "Implementation Plan" to focus on the development of high-definition video surveillance, drone inspections, robot inspections, industrial AR and other services for key production units such as oilfield single wells, pipelines, power lines, gas stations, etc., to create a flat The Internet of Things for oil and gas production, refining and chemical production has formed a number of typical 5G application scenarios in the fields of smart exploration, smart oil and gas fields, smart refineries, and smart pipeline transmission. Aiming at typical application scenarios, the "Implementation Plan" further enumerates the application goals of four scenarios: smart exploration, smart oil and gas wells, smart refineries, and smart pipeline transportation.

Among them, in the intelligent exploration application scenario, based on the characteristics of 5G network high speed, low latency, large connection and edge computing technology, it realizes the centralized access of large-scale seismic node instruments, real-time data return and real-time preprocessing, which greatly improves oil and gas Seismic exploration operations and data analysis efficiency. In the intelligent oil and gas field scenario, it realizes the stable transmission of real-time data of various stations, single wells, and meters in the oil field, the unified management and timely transmission of real-time data and video data of drilling, orientation, logging, fracturing, and robots/UAVs. Inspection, AR inspection and maintenance, and remote control of large machines. In the smart refinery scenario, monitoring tasks such as video, instrument data, high-risk operations, transportation of hazardous chemicals, central control rooms, pipe corridors, etc., environmental protection tasks such as pollution control facility detection, odor traceability, and firefighting, emergency smart vehicles, and unmanned Emergency missions such as aircraft. In the intelligent pipeline transmission scenario, real-time collection and transmission of station production data, equipment status, environmental information, pipeline status monitoring, leakage detection, geological disaster monitoring, and emergency communication, intelligent inspection, and unmanned inspection of long-distance pipelines are realized. Machine inspection.

"In recent years, the application of intelligence in my country's oil and gas field has been rapidly developed and widely used, which will inevitably lead to higher requirements for data transmission." Chen Shouhai, director of the Oil and Gas Policy and Law Research Center of China University of Petroleum (Beijing), told reporters Said, “Intelligence is equivalent to having a sports car, but it still needs a highway, otherwise it will not be able to run. And 5G is this highway, and 5G will be'plus wings' for the intelligence of the oil and gas field, providing more It's possible."

Many companies have explored

In fact, my country's oil and gas field has begun a lot of exploration in 5G applications. In March 2020, Sinopec opened its first smart gas station in Sanya, enabling automatic refueling and facial payment. In December 2020, Sinopec Hainan Refining & Chemical Corporation held a petrochemical 5G private network commissioning ceremony and the second phase construction launch ceremony, marking the official commissioning of my country's petrochemical industry's first 5G private network project. "Currently, the development of 5G private network applications is mainly carried out around the construction of ethylene projects, which can effectively promote the construction of the "three modernizations" of the project." Wang Weizhong, deputy chief engineer of Hainan Refining & Chemicals The construction concept of “three modernizations” of digitalization of physical factories, informationization of project management, and intelligent on-site management. The construction of the 5G private network this time can provide high-speed and high-quality “runway” for the construction of the “sports car” of the “three modernizations”. ."

In early 2021, CNOOC's first "5G + Offshore Intelligent Platform" pilot project also started trial operation in Wenchang Gas Field. Through the combination of 5G and the existing communication transmission system, production control system and service management system in the production of offshore platforms, the interconnection and intercommunication and integrated display of multiple communication systems are realized, which solves the problem that ordinary command center resources cannot be shared, and multimedia dispatch and command A cumbersome and inefficient problem.

Just recently, PetroChina Changqing Petrochemical released the first domestic smart refinery with "full 5G private network coverage, 5G operation full process, 5G cooperation full ecology, and 5G application full scenarios". According to Changqing Petrochemical, the smart refinery includes multiple application scenarios such as production smart supervision, equipment smart management, safety smart management and control, environmental protection automatic monitoring, "5G+AI" industrial applications, "5G+digital twins", etc., which solves traditional refineries. The factory has problems in areas such as safety and environmental protection management and control, production efficiency improvement and process operation optimization.

"5G is a more efficient technology application, which will inevitably improve the overall efficiency of the industry. Especially for the oil and gas industry, for example, high-risk operations in some toxic and harmful places can be completed by robots." Chen Shouhai said, "For the energy industry In other words, if the leading technology can further realize the widespread application of 5G technology, it will also provide the enterprise itself with an opportunity to'overtake on a curve.'"

Deep integration requires the joint efforts of all parties

As a new industrial application, 5G has just started its use. How should it achieve rapid development and widespread implementation? In the eyes of many industry insiders, this requires joint efforts from all parties in the society to explore.

"5G undoubtedly provides huge opportunities for the energy industry, but first, companies must truly realize the benefits that 5G applications can bring to their development and participate more." Chen Shouhai said, "It is like building a highway, requiring more This highway is only valuable if people buy a car to run. 5G and intelligence promote and empower each other.” The “Implementation Plan” also pointed out that the overall 5G application in the energy sector is still in the early stages of development and needs to be further explored. Scenarios, improve supporting supporting systems, and cultivate competitive business models. With the advancement of technology, it is expected that other application scenarios will be further expanded in the future, and new models and business formats of various forms and richness will be evolved.

An oil and gas industry person who did not want to be named told reporters: "The application of '5G+intelligence' is undoubtedly a revolution for the entire oil and gas industry, but it cannot be completed all at once and requires a lot of capital investment and practice. At the same time, all parties need to work together to explore, such as the cooperation between Internet companies and oil and gas companies to explore and practice more possible application scenarios." Chen Shouhai also said: "You can evaluate the potential and possibility of 5G application in the oil and gas field, and Further do a good job of capital investment, technology research and development, and the formulation of more specific work plans. We now have more possibilities and can discover more application areas in practice."

It is worth noting that the "Implementation Plan" also proposes to increase support, give full play to the leading role of central financial investment, guide more social capital to enter, and orderly promote the innovation and demonstration of 5G applications in the energy field.Editor/Baohongying