Reliable Offshore SCADA Computers For Oil & Gas Platforms

6th February 2013

Captec Ltd

ES Admin

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The offshore oil and gas sector operates a hierarchy of computerised control systems required to monitor a variety of operations. One of these operations is the maintenance and control of valves and chokes necessary for the safe and efficient production of oil and gas. At the base of the hierarchy there needs to be a highly reliable computer platform, able to interpret vast amounts of data and communicate with the rest of the system, whilst being situated in a challenging environment.

Captec has designed a rack-mount supervisory monitoring and control system able to withstand both the environment and the system communication requirements outlined above, simultaneously. Therefore, providing the crucial interface between the operators and the entire control system, without which, the visibility of system performance would be lost and emergency shutdown may not be successfully launched.

Key Benefits

-High Reliability
-Consistency of Build
-Specialist Technical Services
-Longevity of Supply
-Single Source Supplier
-Future Expansion

High reliability

Configured using high reliability industrial components as well as incorporating RAID technology and multiple drive bays, resulting in high reliability storage with quick recovery.

Consistency of Build

Implementing a standardized build of the systems ensures that the customer and offshore engineers are aware of the system composition and are able to apply alterations to entire sets of systems without an issue, saving both time and money.

Specialist Technical Services

The system has front-facing USB slots for ease of access, short depth (4U) to accommodate limited space and ruggedized build with dust ingress protection to withstand the offshore environment. Also includes a spares accessory pack to ensure the system fits a variety of cabinet depths and specific installation requirements.

Longevity of Supply

The ability to provide same system components for a number of years minimises disruption to software deployment or upgrades, ensures spares and same system availability for an extended period of time, for both new installations and possible replacements due to wear and tear or damage.

Single Source Supplier

The system incorporates a number of 3rd party plug-in cards, supply sourced, integrated and tested in keeping with specific standards and requirements thereby reducing time, cost and resource to manage as a second stage function.

Future Expansion

The system offers future expansion with up to 8 spare PCI slots to allow for extra I/O cards.

The system is available in both 4U and 2U form factors (2U has reduced expansion capability) and features 2 USB ports, RS232 serial, dual Ethernet, Video and dual RAID. Based on Intel Quad Core i processors, it supports Windows 2003/8 server and Windows XP/7 operating systems. To complement the functionality, a 19” industrial TFT display and 1U industrial draw and keyboard, optimised for space limitation, are also included.