XTO Energy built an IoT Solution in Microsoft Azure to derive valuable insight from data generated by IoT devices ties on field assets i.e oil-well in the area of Permian Basin.
XTO Energy placed existing sensors at the oil-well head to monitor key system parameters like temperatures, pressures, and flow rates.
As a result, IoT devices stream data from sensors into Azure IoT Edge, which then routes data to Cloud Gateway i.e. Azure IoT Hub.
“With Microsoft, Azure, IoT technologies, and Dynamics 365, XTO Energy is an innovation leader in the oil and gas industry.” : Anish Patel, Permian Digitalization Manager at XTO Energy.
What were challenges XTO was facing?
- Each oil-well which are located miles way in Permian Basin area.
- Earlier there were no ways to send the data electronically because field assets were not digitally enabled.
- As a result field technicians of XTO Energy had to collect the data physically about each oil-well.
- So they manually write down these information & went to central office to upload the data for analysis.
Digital transformation – towards big data and analytics:
To address the above challenges, XTO Energy saw big data and analytics as the way of the future.
So XTO Energy decided to make digital transformation to address challenges of monitoring and optimizing a huge field assets.
Aim was to get data from dispersed field assets more efficiently and effectively, as a result it will drive better business decisions and improve safety of field workers.
WHY XTO Energy selected Azure IoT ?
To get the data from distributed field assets located miles way geographically, XTO found the solution: Internet of Things (IoT)
“We evaluated several different cloud providers—and even on-premises systems—and we decided that from an IoT perspective, Microsoft had a strong offering. We already had a lot of Microsoft tools, and we liked the way that Microsoft high-volume storage and big data products work with Azure IoT technologies and the direction that Microsoft is going with cloud and IoT”: Brian Khoury, IoT and Data Architecture Supervisor at XTO Energy.
Azure Technologies in help:
XTO Energy gets effective details into well operations & future drilling possibilities with the help of:
- Microsoft Azure IoT technologies to stream and collect the data electronically
- Azure solutions and Microsoft Dynamics 365 to analyze it to get insight
How Microsoft support to build app?
XTO built full-featured system with minimal staff because of ease of implementation with Azure IoT and with proper support from Microsoft. It only took 12 months for team from idea to send sensor data to Azure in real time.
Designing an IoT setup and Data flow:
We already mentioned, XTO Energy placed existing sensors at the oil-well head so that IoT devices can stream data from sensors into Azure IoT Edge, which then routes data to Cloud Gateway i.e. Azure IoT Hub.
After data reaches to Azure IoT Hub, Azure Stream Analytics preprocesses and it saves it in Azure Cosmos DB. Subsequently
Technical Deep Dive: IoT solution components:
- IoT devices: The IoT devices stream data from sensors connected into Azure IoT Edge
- Azure IoT Edge: Routes data to Azure IoT Hub
- Azure IoT Hub: Passed the streaming data to both Azure Time Series Insights and Azure Stream Analytics.
- Azure Stream Analytics: Preprocess IoT data stream
- Azure Cosmos DB: It stores the preprocessed data.
- Azure Data Lake: The system stores this data in Azure Cosmos DB and Azure Data Lake
- Azure App Service : It fetches the data from Azure Cosmos DB to provide mobile access internal employee.
- Azure Time Series Insights: Internal staff will use Azure Time Series Insights to query & visualize the data in near real-time.
“We’ve made Azure the unifying platform for all our data,” Anish Patel, Permian Digitalization Manager at XTO Energy.
Azure Data services as ETL:
Azure Data services provide increased functionality and scalability supporting company’s growing needs:
- Azure Data Factory: It moves on-premises data to the cloud & perform transform.
- Azure Data Lake: It stores the transformed data.
- Azure Databricks: It performs analytical task to get business insights like where to drill wells effectively and how to boost production
How Microsoft Big and analytics helping XTO?
- Field technicians have tool on their phone to see how a well is functioning.
- It uses Azure to connect these tools to live data from the IoT sensors.
- Subsequently technicians can see what is happening in real time.
- As a result, they can respond immediately to problems that lead to downtime or maintenance issues
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