Cognitus™ Automated Cementing Platform

The next milestone in offshore cementing

The Cognitus™ automated cementing platform enables full remote control of an offshore cement unit from onshore. Two main features, remote control functionality and automation, work together to enable the delivery of an offshore cement job with increased efficiency, reduced cost, less exposure to Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE), and a reduced carbon footprint reduction.

The remote control functionality of the Cognitus platform ties the rig’s cementing equipment together. The offshore cement unit’s manual controls, valving, and ancillary equipment are fitted with automated actuators and wired to Programmable Logic Control (PLC) controllers to allow the system to be operated by a single Human Machine Interface (HMI). The HMI is replicated onshore and allows the operator in a Remote Operations Command and Control (ROCC™) center to perform the same functions onshore as offshore. 

Remote capabilities permit the centralization and sharing of experienced personnel across multiple offshore rigs from onshore to provide enhanced, real-time oversight, which improves operational efficiency. Furthermore, remote capabilities eliminate the need for offshore travel and accommodations, which reduces required POB (Personnel Onboard), cost and HSE exposure.

With remote control alone, a problem can occur when losing connectivity, which can jeopardize the execution and the success of the job and can even cause safety hazards. Automation, the second feature of the Cognitus cementing platform, is the key to mitigate connectivity challenges and achieve efficiency and consistency with remote cementing operations.

A conventional cement job requires hundreds of individual actions to line up and execute all the stages. The Cognitus automated cementing platform provides remote control over all the components on the cement unit and consolidates the hundreds of actions into an automated sequence of less than 10 steps. Once programmed, the cement unit executes each step of the cement job automatically, while monitored by an onshore supervisor. 

The Cognitus automated cementing platform’s logic is held in the cementing unit offshore. The data connection is secure and requires manual authorization from offshore. If the Cognitus platform loses communication to the onshore supervisor, the cement job continues as programmed, while the platform flags the issue to the onshore supervisor and rig personnel. If the automated program cannot be continued, the unit starts an automated wash-up sequence and moves to a safe state. Decades of Halliburton experience and best practices are programmed into the platform and are applied to every job, to thereby ensure a consistent and quality job execution every time.