Before Things Go Out of Control

Solutions Consultant, Don Mast, talks about providing more safety in oil refineries across the country. One way to do this is through the tools Canary Labs provides:

"With increased focus on the booming oil and gas industry by the media, the government, groups against anything gas, and health & safety industrial organizations, more needs to be done to prevent accidents upstream, midstream and downstream. 

Refineries convert raw materials into usable product.

Fact: Workers at American oil refineries die on the job about three times as often as their counterparts in other countries.  One example of this is Tesoro, a Washington state refinery that exploded in 2010, killing seven people. Recently the U.S. Chemical Safety board who investigates our nation’s worst industrial accidents says, that on average, across the nation there’s a significant accident at an oil refinery once every three days.  Companies’ report all the time that they are missing data or chunks of time and when that data is gone, bad things can happen including injuries, downtime and massive fines.  With all the technology available, this can be reduced and prevented. The answer is data.

Canary Labs, a leader in information solutions for the oil and gas industry, is working with global oil and gas companies, pipelines, drillers, and refining companies to protect workers and equipment, reduce production and exploration costs, improve process and production metrics while providing the data needed to drive crucial decisions before things at the job site go out of control.

Utilizing the latest technology, Canary Labs open, flexible and high performance enterprise software runs around the clock to monitor equipment and process metrics by collecting data via the Canary Historian and presenting both real-time and historical data trends, allowing operators to have a good understanding of the current plant / job site conditions. Similarly, Canary Labs software tools provide operators access to invisible variables that are not easily detected; providing early warning alerts to problems that can be resolved before they become a disaster. Solutions are deployed as a simple single site solution or as a complex distributed enterprise resource. 

Driving innovation in the data industry, Canary Labs technology allows operators to collect data from distributed or remote sites and safeguards that the data are sent to the historian in event of a communication outage. Furthermore Canary’s Axiom trending solution, AxiomTrend, is an intuitive and easy to use data analysis tool. It visually transforms process data into knowledge. It empowers operators, engineers, and managers to stay connected while using a common analytical tool for viewing data anywhere at any time via mobile devices. With increased scrutiny on the industry by governments and anti-gas groups, Canary Labs provides streamlined detailed reporting for regulatory compliance. 

“Canary Trending is an invaluable tool in our refinery. It runs around the clock, 24/7. Over the last 14+ years, Canary has provided quality products that utilize the latest technology.” Kevin Moran, System Engineer, Delaware City Refinery “As a trending tool, we like the flexibility in how it’s configured and the ease of use. Users can drag and drop to add trends to the chart and save charts for later recall. The speed is a big plus, allowing users to quickly scan and find historical data they want to see. Users can access overview charts and then quickly drill down to see detailed data. The user doesn’t have to be a genius to figure things out.”

Randy Walker, Control Systems Engineer says, “Canary is a valuable tool allowing us to graphically review archived data for maintenance issues and performance. Templates can be saved of commonly reviewed trends for quick future access. The export utility is used to generate viewed trends into reports for distribution. This trending software has proven to be a valuable asset in our day to day operations.” 

For nearly 30 years, Canary Labs has been a game-changer in the oil and gas, industrial automation, energy production and distribution sectors delivering world-class, real-time data historian and trending tools with a focus on safety and solutions." 

Finding a Cost Effective Enterprise Historian

In another guest post, our Senior Software Engineer, Ken Wyant, explains the hardships of coming up with your own data solution:  

Finding a solution that works may be easier than you think.

"When companies search and evaluate historians for enterprise wide data, many are hesitant to commit to the cost of a true time-series historian. Many times they respond with the answer: “We are going to try and come up with our own solution”. However, what is overlooked is the technical expertise and experience required to store and retrieve the massive amounts of historical and real-time data required for the facets of the business. They think that they can come up with a more cost efficient solution. The problem is that this solution, in the long run, ends up costing the company more, takes longer to build and implement, and it fails to achieve the results that they intend or lacks the desired performance. Often times companies who try to build their own solution, end up coming back and regretting that decision. The negative outcome most often results in the company going back to the solution they originally had tried to avoid: switching to a true enterprise historian.

Usually the perceived cheaper solution that a company comes up with, entails a relational database, such as SQL server or Oracle. These databases normally don’t have an issue with the storage of large amounts of data. However, when it comes to reading and retrieving the data, you quickly find limitations. Often you’ll find scheduled jobs to trim the tables or archive older data to another table or maintenance plans to rebuild indexes periodically. Why? Because performance starts degrading and they don’t have any options except to manage the amount of data online and readily available. A true time series historian won’t require you to lop off data or rebuild indexes weekly OR require data to be moved offline in case you might need to access it again.

Can a company build their own solution that works? Perhaps for a while. But at the same time, it won’t work the way that they expect or envisioned it to. You want the data, and you want it fast. You don’t want all of the data, you want specific results. If that describes you, than maybe you should skip the attempt at developing a home grown solution and allow Canary Labs to provide you with the long term solution that you need.

There is great value in your data if you can get access to it. We find that the companies that commit to this investment with Canary will many times get their return on investment within a few months. Those that work closely and develop the partnership relationship with Canary benefit even more as ideas and innovative techniques are offered, exchanged and developed for game changing solutions for their companies. The Canary Labs mission is to provide superior value to our customers and develop long-term client relationships that exceed customer expectations. Maybe it is time to see what Canary Labs can do for you!"

What Exactly is Big Data?

You hear the term big data all the time in the industry world. Today, it is thrown around very loosely which is why there is much mystery surrounding the definition.

The phrase is big data, and the meaning is unclear. This is a phrase that has only appeared within the last two years; so it is fairly new and difficult to narrow down the meaning. I would even go so far as to say that big data is an umbrella for a plethora of meaning. Even I have used it very fluently in my blog posts. So I feel that a definition is in order.

To put it very simply, big data is massive amounts of data. It starts out just as one line or point of data but then is combined with many other points related/connected to that first point. Big Data happens over time with all this data being collected on a second by second basis. All this data continues to build into massive amounts. At this point, the data becomes too much for commonly used software applications.

Big Data leads to the demand for a software application that is capable for handling the data and interpreting the meaning of all that data. Many trending applications are available that make it simple to see past data and real time data, which is very useful for planning for the future.

One example of a company that uses big data is Walmart. Every hour Walmart handles more than 1 million transactions. The data from these transactions can become very useful if you want to track what is a ‘big seller item’ and what is not. This is one of the more extreme examples.

One of the smaller operations might be a drilling fleet or an oil rig. Both of these examples have many points of data that are tracked and all that data can be very useful if collected and analyzed.

To be honest, there is much more that goes into the definition of big data; much more terminology and detail that I didn’t include. But this is the simple version. If you want a more detailed answer, my advice is google it.

Can Data Historians Help Curb Spills From Saltwater Waste in the Bakken?

I am very excited to announce the first in a series of guest posts from different employees here at Canary Labs. Information Solutions Consultant, Shawn Ebersole, writes about an event that happened very recently in the Oil and Gas industry:

"I saw in the news yesterday that in North Dakota 1 million gallons of saltwater, the equivalent of 24,000 barrels, leaked from a pipeline.  This caused untold damage to surrounding vegetation, and much worse, the contamination of Bear Den Bay. Bear Den Bay leads to Lake Sakakawea, which is the source of drinking water for the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Fortunately, officials believe the drinking water was not affected, but this event got me thinking about how the oil and gas industry can do a better job in preventing this from happening. A big way to prevent this would be the use of a process data historian with real-time and historical trending.

Transporting liquids and gases through pipelines is a very
efficient way to move large quantities of substances from
one place to another.

Before getting into how to use a data historian to monitor saltwater pipelines, it is helpful to understand more about the type of saltwater in the pipelines.  Saltwater is a byproduct that accompanies oil and gas as it is harvested from a well. This type of saltwater is 10 to 30 times saltier than seawater, so if leaked or spilled from a pipeline, it poses a high environmental risk to soil, plants and freshwater resources.

Careful means are taken to properly dispose of this type of saltwater, but unfortunately spills like I saw in the news, have been happening frequently in North Dakota. The reason for the increased number of spills is relative to the growth of oil production in the Bakken.  As of November 2013, North Dakota had 515 saltwater disposal wells and 2,127 saltwater pipelines.  

A bill backed by the Northwest Landowners Association in 2013 would have required the use of flow meters and cutoff switches on all gas and liquid transmission lines, including saltwater pipelines; the bill was voted down 86-4. The opponents of the bill claimed the requirements were too complex and expensive. Further legislation surrounding saltwater pipelines continues to be debated as the subject is becoming a focal point during the race for the Agricultural Commissioner.

After understanding the background of the saltwater waste situation in the Bakken, both environmentally and politically, I feel there will be a movement towards closer monitoring of the saltwater waste pipelines. When this happens the ability to store, visualize and report on data obtained from the flow meters, cutoff switches, etc…will be crucial, and it will be important for the oil and gas companies operating in the Bakken to have a high performing data historian."

Encouraging Education on Data

Because industries are pouring more and more resources into recording data and the benefits that come with it, there is a greater need for the next generation to be educated in this area. 

Just think about it; there are so many companies that are realizing the need for data and its use. Industries like Water & Wastewater, Oil & Gas, and Electric Utilities use big data on a daily basis. But do we really know how to use big data like we think we do? Just think about how many jobs in America deal with big data. With the use of data comes the need to be educated to use it to its best advantage. People need to know not only how to collect the data, but also use the software that records it. People need to know how to read the data and interpret the results. 

There is a Growing Need to Develop Classes
about Big Data

We have seen this need, and want to make a contribution to satisfying it. Canary Labs has extended an offer to engineering colleges across the country to help them develop a course that will benefit students going into these industries. 

This includes the use of our software to use to educate students on how to use historians and trending tools in the field. We also want to help by giving the college suggestions for course content. Our desire to see this need fulfilled is so strong that, we are even willing to make visits to the college to help them in person. We realize the value of education and we want to see more long-term jobs created; this offer is one way that we can help. 

Not only does this offer benefit the college, it also benefits the various industries who use big data. When companies look for new people to hire, they look for the best person suited to the position. People who have this knowledge have the advantage because these skills are in high demand, so it also benefits the student taking the class.

Education is key in building industries and making them stronger. 

If you know of a college that is interested in adding an engineering course about big data, have them contact us at 814-793-3770.

The Canary Labs Commitment

At Canary Labs, we value our customers and want them to be the best in their respective industries. What does this mean? This means that we feel the need to create a program that that allows us to totally focus on our customers’ needs and give them the highest level of support and commitment that they deserve. This dedication towards our customers is why we created the CustomerCare program. 

Caring For Our Customer's Needs

When you subscribe to the CustomerCare program, you are protecting your investment. Often companies have to invest a good bit of money into data software to get the results and quality that they want and need. This investment needs protecting. Your CustomerCare package does exactly this. Also, you can choose the package that best fits your needs as a company which saves you money and gets you the most value out of your software purchase. You took a lot of care in making sure the software you chose was the best for your company's needs; in turn we want to live up to that expectation and provide you with the care that you deserve. 

This means that:

•  You Will ALWAYS Get the Latest Product Updates, Upgrades And Service Packs – It ensures that you will always get the latest version of your software product without any additional cost; every new release, version, feature, enhancement, and improvement which means you will always have the most current technology at your fingertips.

• You Receive On-Demand Updates – No more waiting for a CD in the mail. You can download the latest updates instantly. These updates are released regularly and when the need arises.

• Live Help Desk Personnel – Access to technical email or live help desk support from our team of highly experienced support professionals. This means avoiding that annoying automated voice that goes through eight different steps before finally getting a hold of the person you need to talk to. Being able to talk to a live person means that you can get the help you need faster. 

•  Remote Desktop Sharing – Ever had trouble explaining an issue and putting it into words? This is where our remote desktop sharing feature is very valuable. When a problem is too difficult to describe or has not been reproduced, we use this method to better understand the issue and the steps that are need to correct the situation.
  
  
• Product News Delivered Right To Your Desktop – Regularly receive product news and information about your solution directly from Canary Labs.

We want you to succeed at what you do. This is why we want to give you the best product and best service available to fulfill your needs and make your company more profitable. The whole point of our CustomerCare program is to support your daily work flow and decrease the amount of interruptions that occur. When you subscribe to it, you are not only protecting your investment, you are securing your future.