Norske Shell is a frontrunner in developing and utilizing Digital Twin technology. Since 2019 we have deployed a full reservoir-to-market Digital twin, which encompasses the Nyhamna Onshore gas plant and our the Ormen Lange subsea asset. The Digital Twin project is being used as a best practice example across Shell. The development of the Ormen Lange twin was completed in just 90 days.

A Digital Twin is a virtual representation of the physical elements and dynamic behavior of an asset over its life cycle. They can be of the whole asset (e.g. drilling platforms, wind turbines) but also at the equipment level (e.g. valves). They are built combining data from various sources (Asset operations, maintenance, engineering, real time data series etc.) into visualization and models.

Digital Twins mirror the characteristics and performance of their real-life counterparts providing opportunities for asset owners and operators to optimize performance and extend asset lifetime. For example, an operator might apply “what if” scenarios to the Digital Twin to see how certain conditions, events or fatigue factors might affect the real thing in the digital copy and prevent potential failures.

For Ormen Lange and its partners the twin offers an array of benefits. Disciplines like Subsea Maintenance, Process Engineering, Wells, Flow Assurance, Production Technology Reservoir Engineering and Operations are all collaborating on creating value from the digital Twin. The presentation will seek to show the value of twins exemplified by its use in the operation of the Nyhamna plant an Ormen Lange subsea asset.