The only thing constant is change – and yet we usually find change very difficult; especially when it is thrust upon us from the outside. The automation business has seen significant changes, and these changes are ever growing in scope and complexity. How do we keep up and prosper? Going through a change can be like going through the 5 stages of grief. But we can own it, and we can make that process better, easier, hopeful. It’s something I’ve been doing my whole career, and I’m happy to share some of those experiences with you; some ideas that can help you in your endeavors.

This session will explore the IIoT solutions. By focusing on the problem and not the technology, it is easier to achieve improved safety, compliance, control and monitoring. By increasing connectivity, strategic interpretation of pervasive sensing drives actionable information. Wireless connectivity is one such means of gathering that information to make informed decision on applications from stream traps, pumps, heat exchangers to cooling towers, pressure relief devices and safety showers. An intuitive consistent user experience accessing this data through dashboards or other informative interfaces delivers actionable information to personnel to enable faster decision making. All signals don’t have to go through a DCS or PLC to achieve that outcome. Integration of such pervasive sensing has become a reality and not a trend if we think of such uses in our homes, cars, retails or industrial plant sites. Becoming more predictive and proactive with this approach has resulted in increased production, reduced process incidents, improved reliability, and reduced emissions at large industrial sites.

The initial set of open standards that make up the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS) have been published. Major automation vendors are now building their initial prototypes for open interoperability testing and trials in 2019.

This presentation reviews the top twenty cyberattack classes for industrial control systems and evaluates three different security postures against these attacks: a first-generation IT-inspired ICS security program from best-practice guidance circa 2003-2013, an upgrade to that program to accommodate an Industrial Internet of Things deployment, and an updated design reflecting modern, best-practice ICS security advice.

Business decision makers are often reluctant to allocate funds to defend against low-frequency high-impact (LFHI) attacks on the basis of subjective, qualitative risk assessments or hypothetical probabilities. A spectrum of attacks is shown to be a useful tool for explaining the consequences and benefits of existing vs proposed security postures. A spectrum of specific attacks suggests a specific answer to the question “what is the simplest attack with serious consequences that our current security posture does not defeat reliably?”

Regardless of the venture, there are several key skills and attitudes that distinguish a successful entrepreneur from others. In this workshop, you will learn from an experienced entrepreneur that will teach you valuable lessons through a series of experiences, self-assessments and evaluations. You will learn how to maximize your strengths and mitigate weaknesses to drive entrepreneurial success. These lessons will also grant you an experienced, visceral understanding of the key behaviours and relevant skills needed to be successful as an entrepreneur.

A maxim that is evident to most valve subject matter experts (SMEs) is that the application dictates the valve. Remarkably the selection of valves in many applications is less than best practice and process suffers when it shouldn’t. The consequences of poor control valve sizing and selection can not be understated, affecting both commissioning and startup as well as established operations, creating safety and output issues.

Through the work initiated by the Manufacturers Standardization Society (MSS) to define severe service valves (SSVs), a clear indication of severe service thresholds for control valves has been identified. Different sources estimate the number of Severe Service control valves between 3% to 10% of plant’s valve population, it was also estimated that these valves account for 40% of purchasing cost for all control valves on site, yet once supplied and commissioned in many cases these valves need redesign or replacement as a result of incorrect sizing and selection.

Although control valves sizing is performed in accordance with ISA S75.01 sizing equations and IEC 60534-8-3 Noise Prediction Methods, it may be considered compositely; its parts consist of the following:
• Science
• Personal experience
• Personal preference
• Customer history
• Application history
• Cost of ownership
• Application severity

From practical standpoint control valve selection is often based on the least expensive alternative which will meet process control requirements. Over the years control valve manufacturers developed practical guidelines to help interpret process data correctly, and establish severity of 3 major Severe Service conditions – cavitation, flashing and high noise levels; and methods to handle these conditions according to the level of severity in the most cost effective way.

This holistic approach has proven effective across various applications, some of the most challenging processes for control valves in Hydrocarbon Processing and Pulp and Paper industries include Black Liquor flow control, HP Boiler Feed Water, Wash Water, HP Steam, Superheated Steam and Turbine Steam supply, Inlet Separators feed, High Pressure Gas Separator to Gas Flare, which mostly show not one but a combination of Severe Service conditions that were addressed cumulatively in devising a solution that would meet acceptable level of performance

The presentation will cover the design, implementation and testing of an MQTT middleware communications infrastructure in a large midstream pipeline company (Plains Midstream Canada)

The infrastructure removed all requirements for serial communications from the SCADA Master system to the remotes and replaced it with a Publish/Subscribe architecture. This significantly reduced data latency from the field, reduced leak alarm limits thereby improving sensitivity to leaks and freed up bandwidth to enable the reporting of orphaned data from the field to corporate applications.

The presentation takes the listener through the entire 3-year process from pilot to final upgrade in the field identifying the challenges encountered and how many of the original goals were met (10 of 12). Finally, there will be a short discussion on what the next phase will accomplish using smart devices connected to this architecture to deliver on the promise of IIOT.

CIP Security for EtherNet/IP devices makes use of the IETF-standard TLS (RFC 5246) and DTLS (RFC 6347) protocols in order to provide a secure transport for EtherNet/IP traffic. TLS is used for the TCP-based communications (including encapsulation layer, UCMM, transport class 3), and DTLS for the UDP-based transport class 0/1 communications. This approach is analogous to the way that HTTP uses TLS for HTTPS.

The secure EtherNet/IP transport provides the following security attributes:
• Authentication of the endpoints — ensuring that the target and originator are both trusted entities. End point authentication is accomplished using X.509 certificates or pre-shared keys.
• Message integrity and authentication — ensuring that the message was sent by the trusted endpoint and was not modified in transit. Message integrity and authentication is accomplished via TLS message authentication code (HMAC).
• Message encryption — optional capability to encrypt the communications, provided by the encryption algorithm that is negotiated via the TLS handshake

The general derivation of the loss coefficient (or resistance coefficient) of a control valve trim with multiright angle turns with constant expansion is presented in this article, followed by a historical account of the development of other techniques for commercial applications.

The upstream oil & gas industry has been using a “3 bid and-a-buy strategy” for each piece of equipment for decades, treating compressors, heaters, VRUs etc. as standalone unit/packages. The issue with this approach is that all these pieces of equipment need to be mechanically and electrically stitched together for operations to run the facilities as one entity. The typical facility designs leave the automation system with many complex hardware components to integrate during the design and construction phases as well as a multitude of different software platform solutions which tend to be subjective depending on the EPC. This leaves end users with many variations of facility standards throughout the organization and difficulty maintaining a standardized design with multiple EPCs and construction contractors.

IT-SEC teaches us to “protect the information.” The goal of SEC-OT is not to protect the information, but to protect physical industrial operations from the information, more specifically from cyber attacks that may be embedded in information. After all – all cyber attacks are information. Secure Operations Technology is a perspective, a methodology and a set of best practices documented in this author’s new book. The book describes what thoroughly-secured industrial sites actually do. What they do is different from what most industrial sites do.
For example: most SEC-OT sites define a single control-critical network composed of one or more conventional industrial control system networks. SEC-OT sites carefully inventory all offline and online flows of information into that critical network. Since all attacks are information, a comprehensive inventory of information flows is also a comprehensive inventory of attack vectors. Secure sites then set about systematically blocking or strictly controlling all of these information/attack flows.
This presentation summarizes the SEC-OT methodology and best practices. A limited number of complementary copies of the new book will be available to attendees.

Artificial Intelligence is quickly becoming a new business imperative in Oil and Gas. Business benefits of adopting this technology are significant and it will be difficult to compete without using it. This keynote will describe where AI technology is most commonly used, what benefits it delivers and what are the typical challenges awaiting its adopters. I will describe how AI fits in a broader Digital Transformation agenda and explain key AI concepts. I will also provide a few real-life examples of AI technology used in the oil & gas industry, including ones from Oil Sands. Finally, I will comment of where the technology is heading and what to expect in the coming years.

Measurement is often the critical factor necessary to optimize hydrocarbon processing facilities. While many analyzers are capable of performing the required analysis, the ability to provide online measurement capabilities in real world applications is often confounded by the need for an elaborate and complex sample conditioning system. Most analytical methods require that the sample properties, such as temperature and pressure be well controlled and that the sample is clean and contaminant free. Spectroscopic solutions often reduce the required complexity of the sample conditioning system and also provide near real-time analysis.

Advances in semiconductor technology and in numerical analysis have enabled the use of near infrared (NIR) spectrometers in such applications. These devices have been applied in upstream, midstream and downstream facilities to provide real-time quantitative analysis of both chemical composition and physical properties. Upstream, the measurement has been taken to the well-head to monitor and optimize hydrocarbon production during enhance oil recovery (EOR) operations. The technology has been applied extensively through out the midstream industry, from optimizing condensate stabilizer performance to LPG production to crude oil blending. Downstream, near infrared spectroscopy is being applied to the production of refined products, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

During early design phases of engineering, either in sustaining or significant projects. Many times, we have heard experienced personnel on the project team conversing about, “we should write these requirements in equipment/instrument package specification…..”, “let construction determine the installation….”, “we don’t know how the cable is installed to this instrument…..”. And many more such instances, where the engineering project team does not realize the potential challenge and transfers the responsibility to others in construction or commissioning. Moreover, by assuming that others will take these simple to complex tasks care during later phases of the project. One always has to remember those construction workforces are doers of what is given to them as construction documentation.

Most of the difficulties coming out during construction and commissioning phases can be removed by implementing best practices during the engineering. So what are these best practices? Are these documented anywhere? Every measurement technology has a unique selection, design, installation, and commissioning
requirement. Also, all instruments are not the same; even the same category of product with different model
numbers is different. Selection and implementation of measurement technology is a multi-discipline and
multi-stakeholder collaboration, where coordination between disciplines at every level of engineering,
procurement, and design results in the best practices.

This paper/presentation addresses some of the best practices based on project experiences to be considered
during the engineering, design and procurement phases from the steps where an application is identified with
the operating and design process conditions to the vendors recommending the best measurement
technology. Such interdependencies, if worked correctly on these pieces of instrument/equipment will reduce
the overall TIC of the application providing capital efficiencies on the project. Doing it right in the first place also improves the schedule by eliminating the rework and thus improving the overall cost benefits for the
projects.

Today’s automation systems are incredibly complex, with thousands of measurements, integrated applications, and more interdependency than ever before. The primary mechanism for continuous improvement to the process and operations within an industrial facility consists of daily configuration changes on a wide range of multi-vendor automation systems. The vast majority of the changes are unmanaged and undocumented, which makes determining what authorized or unauthorized changes occurred almost impossible. This leaves industrial facilities vulnerable to cyberattacks from external threat actors and also vulnerable to the effects of undocumented or unauthorized changes made by insiders.

OT asset management is foundational to an effective OT cybersecurity program. OT asset management includes inventory management, configuration management, vulnerability management, and the detection of unauthorized changes. Effective OT asset management can improve production safety and reliability while reducing OT cyber risk. OT asset management also delivers the depth and breadth of information that cybersecurity professionals, as well as control system engineers, need to secure ICS assets effectively. However, OT asset management in many organizations is characterized by bad data about inventory, configurations, and vulnerabilities; poor change management practices; and misplaced assumptions, such as the notion that acquiring asset inventory or configuration data requires an IP address or device scan.

In this session:
• Review five real-world asset management use cases and their cybersecurity implications
• See how OT asset management can provide deep visibility into the cybersecurity posture of industrial assets – all the way down to the field instrument and control strategy level – without the risk associated with active polling of devices
• Understand how improving OT asset management improves both OT cybersecurity and process reliability
• Identify strategies to improve OT asset management and cybersecurity within your own organization

Evaluation of bitumen content in oil sands feedstock is important to control the extraction process and improve
the recovery efficiency. Current standard techniques for bitumen determination in oil sands ore suffer whether from their timeconsuming labor intensive method of sample preparations or from requiring a high number of samples for calibration purposes.
The analysis of bitumen ore samples is very challenging for the analytical chemist due to its nature of several phases of wet and dry particles and heterogeneous mixture of clay, bitumen, water, and solid contents. In this paper, we present a new enabling method using LIBS to determine rapidly and without sample preparation the bitumen content in oil sands ores. A qualitative study by principal component analysis was first done, and then a partial least-squares method was performed to assess the feasibility of determining bitumen by LIBS. The results show a good correlation between LIBS spectra and bitumen content and a prediction averaged absolute error around 0.7%. This method demonstrates that the LIBS is a promising tool for rapidly assessing oil sands ore grades either in the lab, at-line, or online. Elemental composition of solids is also investigated.

Our natural gas storage facility located in Carbon, Alberta, Canada has several manually operated isolation valves that change the flow path of the facility between 4 different modes of operation (Injection, Withdrawal, Compression, and Dew Point Control). For years, these isolation valves have been manually operated and logged by field personnel. The field operators would update a large whiteboard in the control room with dry erase markers to visualize the facility process flow diagram and current mode of operation.

Our project transformed this manual effort into an automated process by leveraging several digital technologies including a wireless gateway, wireless position transmitters, DeltaV Distributed Control System, and Human Centered Design concepts.

Everyone struggles with how big of a challenge cybersecurity for OT environments is when you factor in aging operating systems, process fragility, lack of staff/skills/resources and a reluctance to ‘violate’ OEM support or warranty agreements. The reality, however, is that we have ‘IT systems’ in our environments so we must adopt ‘IT solutions’ to manage and maintain them.
The concept of IT service management (ITSM) is well established and, according to Wikipedia refers to the entirety of activities – directed by policies, organized and structured in processes and supporting procedures – that are performed by an organization to design, plan, deliver, operate and control information technology (IT) services offered to customers.
Our premise is that we need to establish an OTSM or OT Service Management program to properly provide cybersecurity and system health/reliability functions into the process control environment. This means adopting (safely) IT type of tools, practices (SOC, Cloud, Agents, Automation, etc) into an OT network to produce sustainable, repeatable results and significantly improve cyber security ‘hygiene’ in OT.
This presentation will start with an outline of an OTSM approach to security, then transition to two very different case studies where OTSM helped to first ‘assess and measure’ security risk by performing a technology enabled risk assessment. The second case study illustrates the speed, accuracy and flexibility in maintaining and managing an OT environment gains by deploying an OTSM approach.

Accurate and reliable measurements of contaminants in Ethylene feedstocks from steam crackers have historically required time-consuming and higher maintenance methods such as ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS) or chromatography (GC). A near real-time analysis allows better control of the hydrogenation process to minimize contaminants such as acetylene (C2H2), ammonia (NH3) and water (H2O) that will poison catalysts in further chemical processes. This paper reports on the design, development, and deployment of novel instrumentation, consisting of innovative laser-based gas analyzers for rapid measurements of multiple contaminants with extremely high sensitivity, accuracy and dynamic range. This new instrumentation, based on a Cavity-Enhanced Laser Absorption Spectroscopy technique, can use advanced calibration techniques to directly measure without any scrubber or elution technique. This enables continuous measurements with 1-second time resolution and thus provides a means for process monitoring and control, including tracking upsets far above the typical limits.

The rate at which technology is evolving continues to grow at a rapid pace. Whereas in the past technology was developed based on industry requirements and needs to increase efficiency and production, this is changing, and industry must now respond to new technologies in order to compete and grow. Recent studies indicate that the use of automation in the workplace will nearly double in the next few years. Industry is now facing not only challenges to keep up with the integration of automation, but also how to transition its workforce. If we look at the control room as being the heart of the industrial environment, the focus in the past has mainly been on the physical and automated components. The challenge in today’s control room environment is not only with the transition to more technologically advanced operations, but also to the need for more technologically advanced operators. Competition for a smaller skilled workforce, with more options for careers that embrace technology will increase exponentially. How will industry attract the operators required to maintain and continue to increase production? Understanding the challenges and being aware of the obstacles will help industry to continue to attract, retain and enable the workforce of the future. There are solutions that are not immediately apparent that can be applied to today’s environment, with the future in mind. This presentation will discuss options for industry to respond to these changing circumstances.

Continuous Threat Detection (CTD), provides an approach to give industrial sites extreme visibility, continuous threat and vulnerability monitoring, and deep insights into ICS networks. The approach ensures safe, secure and reliable operations in large, complex industrial networks – ensuring zero impact to the underlying operational processes and improved cyber resiliency.

Companies have to extract precise details about each asset on the industrial network, profile all communications and protocols, generate a fine-grain behavioral baseline that characterizes legitimate traffic, and alerts you to network changes, new vulnerabilities and threats. You need a system that provides the contextual information you need to investigate and respond quickly.

This approach delivers the following key benefits:

• Rapidly detect industrial operations risk, enhance cyber resiliency, and minimize unplanned downtime
• Prevent impact to physical processes, expensive industrial equipment or injuries to people
• Quickly deploy and scale across multiple sites and reduce overall management costs

Gas chromatography is used to analyze gas quality and composition for a variety of process applications. Applications include inlet gas, sales gas, processed gas within a facility or energy metering prior to fired equipment.
This presentation will focus on chromatography theory, a demonstration of natural gas chromatography using a simulator analyzing natural gas (also simulated), and will include a discussion of sample systems and sample system components (hands-on with demonstration product passed around).
Best practices for installation will be discussed, and real world examples will be reviewed.
Vendor-neutrality Disclaimer: Photo examples will depict the ABB Totalflow NGC 8200 (PGC 1000) series equipmen

Process Control HMI improvement continues to be a hot topic. It began with the publication of The High Performance HMI Handbook in 2009, followed by the 2015 publication of the ISA-101 HMI standard. Since 2009, many companies have revised their HMI practices, many case studies have been published, and many presentations have been given at technical conferences.
Graphics should provide:
• Depiction of information rather than just raw numeric data
• Clean, clear, crisp, and legible object depictions
• Ease in deciphering object elements
• Proper and consistent use of color
But, thing seem to be going wrong. Camouflage is the art of making things more difficult to see. Methods of camouflage include decreasing an object’s contrast to its surroundings, eliminating outlines and edges, eliminating patterns, and the incorporation of randomness in visual arrangement.
Surprisingly, these principles and methods seem to be the basis of many HMI practices being touted today as “improvements.” These include:
• Design elements that are low-visibility, tiny, and “fussy”
• Gray-on-gray “blob” graphics with inadequate contrast
• Random and confusing arrangement of screen items
• Poor use of screen space, with “white space” increased by making process indications smaller and more difficult to read
• Even worse use of color than “traditional” graphics
Such poor designs are easily found on the web, in magazine articles, and in vendor promotional materials and completed designs. In this talk, examples of such practices will be shown, and contrasted to clean, clear, crisp, and legible visualizations that would provide operators with a much clearer understanding of process conditions.

The Industrial Internet of Things and digital transformation present a new paradigm for users implementing new measurements, location services and analytics; but do they really. New analytic and wireless companies abound, but many will go the way of the dotcom era unavailable and unsupported. While tried and true technologies built on international standards like IEC62591 (WirelessHART) the Purdue model offer the next evolution for securing systems in process and factory automation. Understanding how to decipher the amalgam of acronyms; what capabilities exist; and connectivity options are the first step in expanding usage of available secure technologies.

In this presentation, you will learn about how IIoT technologies can impact a facility – from design, to execution, to commissioning and ongoing operations. The speaker will review the architecture and technology required to improving security, connectivity and information dissemination throughout the operational environment.