TOKU Systems:
IoT insight for oil and gas operators
Improving efficiency, safety, and operating cost with IIoT monitoring systems
Real-time insight for energy producers
Calgary-based TOKU Systems launched in 2014 with an ambitious vision: to transform the $2 trillion oil and gas industry through technical innovation. Today, TOKU’s advanced monitoring systems capture second-by-second data from pipelines, wells and tanks across North America and Asia.
TOKU’s advanced monitoring system is based on a breakthrough pressure-sensing device that can be installed in minutes to provide unprecedented visibility into the condition and health of critical assets such as wells, tanks, and pipelines.
Oil and gas operators maintain thousands of miles of pipeline, typically crossing extremely remote areas, and even major problems like pipeline leaks can be extremely difficult to detect. In the U.S. alone, there are over 80,000 miles of crude oil pipe, and over 2.4 million miles of total energy pipeline.
TOKU’s high-resolution pressure data provides energy producers with the instant, real-time clarity they need to enhance predictability, increase production capability, improve capacity utilization, and drive down operating costs.
CHALLENGE
20th century infrastructure; 21st century demands
Oil and gas producers play a vital role in the global economy and in our daily life, continuously delivering fuel over millions of miles of pipeline to fulfill fully 80% of the world’s daily energy needs.
It’s an enormous task, made more challenging by an aging infrastructure with origins tracing back to the nineteenth century. Even today, we estimate 90% of existing oil wells lack any form of automated monitoring, and 90% of pipelines have no monitoring at all.
And those monitoring capabilities are needed more than ever before. Market uncertainty, demographic shifts, and the emergence of a competing renewable energy sector have all put pressure on the industry’s highly trained and specialized labor pool.
Between 2014 and 2019, the oil and gas workforce contracted by nearly 25% across North America, with no reduction in demand. While process automation and SCADA systems can help to improve overall efficiency, those systems have also proven costly and difficult to deploy at scale.
SOLUTION
Powerful, affordable asset monitoring
By combining an innovative industrial pressure sensor with cutting-edge IIoT (Industrial IoT) technology, TOKU gives oil and gas producers continuous, real-time visibility into the operating condition of pipelines, wells, tanks, pump jacks and other critical infrastructure.
Amazingly, the physical design of the TOKU sensor allows on-site installation and configuration in as little as 10 minutes. The fully autonomous TOKU sensor continuously captures second-by-second pressure data, uses cellular communication to send data and immediate cry-out notifications of alarm conditions and has a 360-degree solar panel allowing for self-sustainability.
Once initialization is complete, real-time operational data is immediately visible through TOKU’s web-based Illumass interface and viewable from any mobile device.
This affordable, easily-installed solution gives producers an extremely detailed view into the moment-to-moment condition of field assets, even those in the most remote locations. Instant visibility and clarity comes from continuous pressure measurements, alerting operators to problems like pipeline leaks that are typically very difficult to detect.
In addition to reducing the need for costly field inspections, this solution provides monitoring capability to meet industry expectations of up to 200 wells per operator helping to manage workforce and workload challenges.
WHY SORACOM
Global capability and ease of use
TOKU has developed a partnership with PT. Fuji Electric Indonesia to bring advanced remote monitoring to the massive energy market in Indonesia. In testing with local wireless carriers, TOKU found that their SIMs would often take too long to connect, or would require a username and password to access the network, which makes sense for mobile phones but would leave IIoT devices unable to connect.
Soracom also offers the ability to connect to multiple local wireless carriers’ networks, improving the coverage area while being logistically simple to roll out and support.
Fuji Electric recommended Soracom based on previous experience, and since using Soracom, TOKU’s experience has been successful. Based on the reliability of connection and ease of onboarding, TOKU expects to roll out with Soracom in other markets around the world, including the United States.
FUTURE PLANS
Enhanced capability for enhanced operational insight
TOKU’s IIoT monitoring systems will continue to evolve with a “plug and play” version of the original TOKU pressure sensor that allows other sensing elements to be attached or removed as needed. Third-party analytical packages can also be integrated into the Illumass data portal.
These hardware and software extensions will allow oil and gas producers to draw both greater and more customized insight from TOKU data.