OREANDA-NEWS. January 13, 2014. More than 500 automation experts attended the ISA Automation Conference, the first in the Kingdom, hosted at a Dammam area hotel. Saudi Aramco was a platinum sponsor of the event.

In the first two days of the conference, industry professionals participated in comprehensive training conducted by international well-known experts in the field of process automation. During the remaining three days, more than 60 national and international presenters presented the latest technologies and best practices (see box). The materials presented covered a wide spectrum of topics in automation, ranging from cyber security to wireless and industrial communications.

In the keynote speech, Saudi Aramco chief engineer Ahmad O. Al-Khowaiter stated that “the end-to-end automation is an integral part of Saudi Aramco oil recovery processing and delivery.”  Al-Khowaiter underscored how intelligent systems enabled a reduction in capital expenditure while achieving the required safety level.

On the downstream side, as automation continues to advance, there is an opportunity to make gains in productivity, he added. Al-Khowaiter pointed out that the automation industry has the opportunity to take cyber security more serious. Additionally, developers can make automation systems more user-friendly and increase their reliability. 

“Saudi Arabia’s ISA (International Society of Automation) chapter should play a vital role in nurturing new professionals and young talents,” Al-Khowaiter said. “This event is a sincere effort and bold statement by the ISA to address key challenges, linking our professionals and promoting awareness.”

Luay Al-Awami, president of the ISA Saudi Arabia Section and conference chairman, said the purpose of the event was “to bring all that expertise under one roof,” adding that the ISA organizes various programs and workshops to facilitate the transfer of technology and know-how to engineers and professionals in the Kingdom. 

During the conference, Saudi Aramco representatives highlighted the latest automation technologies and best practices the company is currently utilizing. Faisal H. Al-Shahrain of Abqaiq Plants talked about wireless instrumentation implementation and performance analysis. Mohammed Al-Abdulmohsin of the Khurais Producing Department spoke about risk management methodology to control cyber threats and vulnerabilities of control systems.

In the exhibition, Saudi Aramco hosted a booth to demonstrate the latest technologies to advance automation. The Engineering Solutions Center (ESC) was presented to visitors to the Saudi Aramco booth. The ESC enables engineers from various disciplines to collaborate on tackling technical challenges through providing access to data and sophisticated applications.

 “No longer do the defense and aerospace industries lead the development of technologies,” said Sandy Taylor, a senior group vice president for Sales and Marketing at ABB Process Automation Division. Technology for consumers is primarily driving the development of automation systems in the industrial plants. Taylor noted that faster processors, coupled with an expanding sensors capacity to capture data, create immense opportunities to automate and improve productivity. However, designers have to adapt control rooms to deal with this huge expansion in data access. He spoke about the following future trends in the industry:

Sensors will be powered by solar and/or thermal energy, resulting in the elimination of the requirement for complex electricity supply lines.

Wireless networks in plants will connect and integrate scattered sensors.

Dashboards, displaying KPIs in colorful graphics, will replace monitors showing numerous numbers in control rooms.

These improvements should assist in reducing the 80 percent of incidents in control rooms that are preventative, Taylor added.