How Does LOWIS™ Software Work?

LOWIS' surveillance tools place integrated real-time and historical well data at the user's fingertips, and facilitate immediate control of wellhead facilities.

LOWIS' analysis suite of tools provides the method for faster diagnosis and remediation of production problems.

LOWIS' well service management suite helps prioritize and plan well service events, and presents histories in comparative graphs and reports to help determine best operating practices.

LOWIS' web reporting tools facilitate enhanced information exchange across the enterprise.

Enhancing the Data Management Process

LOWIS software enhances the data management process as data acquisition begins at the well site to the final presentation and viewing of analytical results and reports at the desktop. The data can be captured manually or automatically in LOWIS software depending on the tools available to the producer.

There are many people within an enterprise involved in the process of producing oil and gas. The data and information required to be able to make daily decisions on how to improve production and overall operations is typically not easily accessible by these different users of the data. LOWIS software is designed to act as the single interface to this information regardless of the data format or location within an enterprise. By providing an easy access to view data from different sources, time can be better spent determining what, how, and when services should be done rather than trying to collect and assimilate the data to begin an analysis.

Advanced SCADA

If an operator has automation devices in a field, the SCADA functionality already built into LOWIS software can remotely interrogate and control several different types of wells or facilities within a single system. Currently the well types and functions supported include:

• Flowing Wells
• Rod Pump Wells
• Electric Submersible Pump (ESP) Wells
• Injection / Disposal Wells
• Production / Well Test Facilities

Connectivity

Because LOWIS software is the only system built exclusively for oil and gas production, over 90 protocol drivers are supported in the native protocol of each device, enabling the user to have access to all the functionality designed into that device. By supporting this number of protocols, the field operator has the freedom to mix different devices and types of devices in a field on a single system. In addition, LOWIS software has the power to support multiple types of devices on a single communications channel as well as provides support for all OPC compliant controllers, RTUs, and PLCs.

LOWIS software supports several different communication methods as well, including RF, spread spectrum radio, geosynchronous satellite, CDPD, fiber optic, and hard wire. These methods can be mixed within a field on a single system giving the operator the ultimate flexibility in data acquisition and movement.

Multiple Data Sources

After capturing and moving the data from the well to the host server, LOWIS software stores the data in its own database that is designed specifically to capture the static data for any well type and the dynamic data that is collected manually or automatically on a regular basis. Although not designed to act as a data historian, the database has the ability to store two to three years of data on several thousand wells. The database has ODBC functionality allowing for an open exchange of data to other ODBC data stores.

Perhaps the most powerful feature of LOWIS software is its ability to view data from multiple ODBC or OPC compliant sources through a single interface. From a user perspective, the information appears to be from a single source and no special queries, skills, or knowledge of database architectures is required on the part of the user to be able to interact with the data. Data from different sources can be displayed in different columns on a single table for ease of understanding.