Work Blog 9

SMACS6

I've worked with SMACS6 now since its beginnings in 2007/8 until now, 6 years later. It
started life as SMACS5E. An 'Extended' version of SMACS5, the main difference being
that it was running on Trihedral's SCADA product VTS rather than WEB.

The first one to go in was EON Johnston, a SMACS4 to SMACS6 conversion. I then joined
the SMACS6 gang with Nexen Telford Scott. This was a challenging job, more for the hard
ware chaps than us software people since it was the removal of two separate SMACS4 racks from two separate platforms (separated by a bridge). These were replaced with a single sleek black SMACS6 MCS cabinet.

From here on the came thick and fast, Shell Anasuria, Taqa Pelicans, Mobil Nevis, Shell Nelson. All SMACS4 conversions. The next one I worked on was Shell Gannet, which was sadly never used.

By 2010 though, we were starting to make 'Greenfield' SMACS6 cabinets and software and the
hardware was progressing to be more PLC and portserver based. The next SMACS6 job I worked
on was the software for Atla WOCS. WOCS systems are very interesting and quite different
from your average MCS.

In 2011 my main job was Fairfield Dunlin Alpha, another SMACS4 conversion. This job I
have nothing but fond memories of, even though some other people on the project might have
disagreed! The software was very interesting, in that it had a lot of topside control of
separators and suchlike while also controlling 29 wells.

After that I strayed briefly back into SMACS5, but this year I have been right back into it with the SMACS4 conversion of Marathon West Brae.

By now I am quite familiar with SMACS6 and love these conversion jobs. While I have been
working away on my ones, a great many more Greenfields and conversions have gone in, such
as Centrica Ensign, CNOOC Yacheng and Origin Otway. They are being built in Houston and Malaysia now as well.

In my team alone there are two Greenfield developments going on, namely Siakap and Dana Western
Isles.

Speaking from my experience, SMACS6 builds on the ease of use that SMACS5 had. Most of the
work has already been done in the SMACS6 core and is mostly usable straight out of the box.
The big conversions take time though, developing mimics, shutdowns and writing new code for
such things as flow calculations and shutdown logic.

SMACS5/6 systems tend to be (relatively) simple and robust and skills that you have picked
up in one system are easily transferred to another. Thanks to the core being so universal, if
you have worked on one SMACS6 system you can support any other one.

SMACS5/6 systems are almost always dual Windows PC based and while this limits how much it
can be involved in safety critical areas it doesn't limit the amount of wells or lines it
can handle. This is limited only by the amount of modems you can stick in the rack, you could
handle 200 wells with one SMACS6 MCS.

Thanks to early design decisions, a SMACS6 rack is very distinctive in appearance with a matt
black finish to the front of the panel and bright blue digital display lamps, more than just
a big box of wires these things really have a personality all of their own.
(Someone once told the hardware guys, it should look like my iPod, but bigger!)

There are 34 SMACS6 systems out there now or in production. It looks like many of
the SMACS5 systems will now be upgraded and there is 120 of them. That should be enough to keep
us going for a while!