In as little as four years, the market for the IoT (Internet of Things) in oil and gas worldwide is set to reach $39.40 billion. The oil and gas industry has readily adopted IoT because of the large range of technological challenges organizations face in downstream, midstream, and upstream markets. Here are just a few of those challenges:
In the oil and gas industry, often, your equipment is subject to harsh conditions. That can mean extremely cold temperatures, or areas of high pressure, or places with poor gas quality. Many sites don’t have permanent power supplies, which limits heating solutions to unsafe, impractical, or expensive options.
But you need to protect valves and regulators from freezing to avoid shutdowns and keep productivity high.
Frozen valves and instruments on a remote site are a common and frustrating experience in the oil and gas industry. The downtime and loss of productivity that happens due to a freeze are even worse – you’re losing money every hour that your equipment isn’t working properly.
Freezes don’t just happen due to low temperatures, though that’s certainly a common cause. Large pressure cuts also frequently freeze valves due to the Joule-Thomson Effect. That means valves can freeze at any time of year – even when you’re least prepared to deal with a freeze.
How can you keep your valves, equipment, and even your people from freezing in tough conditions on a remote site? Even in less-harsh conditions, large pressure cuts and wet gas can cause freezes. Resulting in shutdowns, which cause a serious loss of revenue.
But there’s a better option than simply hoping things don’t freeze (the plan of many oil and gas sites we’ve seen) or a hastily installed patchwork of heat tape and insulation.