Lacq oil and gas field, discovered in 1951 and operated since 1957, was the largest natural gas field in France. At the time, starting this field’s production represented a number of technical challenges (related to the significant depth of the assets and its high content of H2S, a corrosive and toxic gas). The exploitation of Lacq’s gas led to the construction of a large industrial complex and economically boosted the area. In 2013, following the cessation of operations, the industrial complex was converted into a Research Center called PERL; today there are various activities ranging from fine chemicals to renewable energies. The site is still classified SEVESO 3 and impresses by both its extent and infrastructure.
It was in Lacq that on May 15, 2018, Franck Guarnieri and Justin Larouzée (CRC, MINES ParisTech) visited for the first time the TADI platform (Transverse Anomaly Detection Infrastructure) installed after 2015, on a 5.5 ha area of the PERL by TOTAL EP’s R&D. TADI, focused on prevention, was soon operational to achieve controlled leakage of inert gases to evaluate detection and/or quantification technologies (future episode on one of these “detection campaigns”). TADI’s infrastructure is now progressively coupled to a remote control and operations room (called Digital Booster of the PERL or BNP) as well as to a datalake.
TADI will be useful in addressing the effects of remote operations on the organizational and human aspects of safety (see episode 1)! Indeed, tomorrow TADI could make it possible to carry out experiments and training to manage anomalies or crises of a very high degree of complexity and realism; but also to be used to evaluate and validate procedures, organization and communication methods in a remote operation context. In order to build such TADI advanced features, the CRC associated with the TOTAL EP R&D team, will design a Multi-Agent System and conduct a feasibility study on a “realistic” Artificial Intelligence to simulate different categories of actors (technicians, executives, experts, etc.).
To be continued!
