Under Invitation from AGOC
Saudi Aramco IT Department Holds a Forum in KJO About GIS
On Tuesday, December 19th, 2018, and under an invitation from Aramco Gulf Operations (AGOC), Saudi Aramco Information Technology Department, E-Maps Division, held a forum about the Geographic Information System (GIS), which was developed by Saudi Aramco to meet the needs of various operation, maintenance, engineering, environment, medical, security and safety departments. Eng. Mohsen Al-Otaibi, AGOC Executive Director of Projects and Engineering, welcomed Eng. Thamer Tarabzoni and Eng. Hussain Al-Nasser, from Saudi Aramco, who arranged the presentation and the forum. Eng. Hussain Al-Nasser started the event by defining GIS as powerful computer-based tools used to enter, maintain, store, distribute, and analyze geospatial data. It helps in making successful planning and taking correct decisions regarding most operations of Saudi Aramco. It also reads the infrastructure of any area or plant by making layers, entering maps, aerial photos and data, processing, storing, recovering and analyzing the same, and displaying them on computer, paper maps, reports, drawings, or applications.
GIS helps answering many inquiries; like:
1- The industrial model of the place of study.
2- Types of products to be manufactured in certain site.
3- The area and coordinates of units.
4- Diameter of the oil or gas pipe which feeds this facility.
5- Where is the location of the required industrial unit?
6- What are the oil or gas pipes which diameter is 20 inches in certain place?
7- The changes in the extent of expansion of any spilled oil from date to another.
8- Showing the number of wells for the distance of 5 KMs (For example), from certain point.
Features of GIS:
• Quick access to huge quantity of data and information.
• Help taking correct decision in short time.
• Help circulating information to larger number of beneficiaries.
• Integrating the spatial and descriptive information in one database.
• Documenting and verifying data and information under unified standards.
• Coordinating between information and concerned bodies before taking decision.
• High ability to analyze spatial information.
• Answering the queries and questions regarding the location or description.
• Video simulation of the spatial/location information.
• Simulation of the new proposals and planning projects, and studying the results before the actual application.
Then Eng. Al-Nasser presented the applications currently used by Saudi Aramco Departments; particularly:
1- CERT and Lifeline Applications: CERT is an application related to the preparedness to deal with the operational risks. It enables the user to know the status of the H2S sensors, gas valves, wind direction, and models of gas spreading in a record time. Lifeline is a Real-Time application used in the marine services; like aviation, marine ships, drilling and maintenance works. It monitors the locations of helicopters and ships, and provides other marine information.
2- Mega Projects Applications, like the Projects of Wasit, Jazan, Manifa, and KAUST. This application is used to manage and monitor work progress in mega projects, by using ArcGIS.
3- AVL and ePatrol Applications: AVL is an application used for automatic tracking of the locations and speed of Company vehicles as well as the behaviors of drivers. It helps in best utilizing the Company’s fleet of cars, and facilitates search and evacuation operations. ePatrol is used for tracking industrial security cars, comparing the plans and schedules of patrols to the actual visits of such locations, to improve the tasks of such patrols and minimize risks.
4- Asset Management Applications (ePipe, NE-Infrastructure, UFIM Utility, PFM-Power, Land Management and Marine Logistics): ePipe helps in pipe works and applying the best operations standards. NE-Infrastructure helps networks engineers to determine the network infrastructure in certain area and improves monitoring, operating and maintaining the same. UFM-Utility and PFM-Power help utility and power engineers in effective planning, operation and maintenance of electricity, water, sewerage and storm water drainage networks. Land Management helps Lands Affairs Division in determining the plot, under study, its area, dimensions, coordinates and type of use. Marine Logistics helps tracking shipped materials from the warehouses to the offshore drilling operations. It integrates the marine logistic tracking with GIS, to coordinate the transport of materials with the traffic of ships in record time.
5. HOS Application: It manages the home ownership system of the Company’s employees. It helps the interested employee to search for a plot, and helps arranging priorities and fast distribution.
6. Corporate Maps and Mobile GIS: Corporate Maps is an application helping in spotting Saudi Aramco assets on the maps, determining the distance between various locations, and showing the real-time traffic on Saudi Arabia highways and local roads. It provides also information about local weather, and suggests new locations to be added later on. Mobile GIS is an application for the smart mobile phones. It helps locating the buildings and hospitals of the Company, as well as the places of distributing materials in various workplaces.
7- EPD GIS and Weather-Now: EPD GIS manages all environmental data and monitors the surveillance stations and wells to determine the extent of effects of Company’s operations on air quality, groundwater contamination and marine life. Weather-Now is a real-time application that provides historical information about weather, like temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and directions, as observed by Saudi Aramco Environment Protection Department’s stations, which are located in various places in the Kingdom.
8. LUP and Renewable Energy: LUP is an application widely used in the business of the Company. It determines the suitable lands of the Company, in the Kingdom, to be used for the various projects of the Company. It also determines the lands of the Company which can be transferred as a support in favor of government or private projects. Renewable Energy is an application helping the Renewable Energy Department to determine and analyze certain geographical locations that can be utilized for establishing the renewable energy projects.
Thereafter, Eng. Thamer made a presentation about the Remote Sensing Technology which helps the Company to deal with many challenges; such as the oil spills in the regional water of the Kingdom, in general, and in the marine areas of Saudi Aramco in particular. This technology helps determining the size, movement and effects of oil spills, and helps detecting the oil tankers which spill its ballast water in the regional waters, in violation to the national and international regulations. It also helps detecting any encroachments against the concession areas and lands of the Company. There are two types of remote sensing; visible remote sensing and radar remote sensing. The quality of visible sensing has three categories: medium resolution, high resolution, and very high resolution, and each category deals with certain satellite. The visible sensing remains limited, because it works only in the daylight. As for the radar sensing, it can be used in all times and in all weather conditions. He added that remote sensing helps determining the environmental effects on mangrove, and provides information about the lands which have high sand dunes, similar to the Empty Quarter, and determines the quantity of sands that can be removed for the purpose of executing the oil and gas projects in such areas.
At the end of the Forum, Al-Otaibi thanked the presenters and urged the attendees to avail from such valuable information and apply the same in KJO.