ConocoPhillips enlists 3D printing for supply efficiencies on Alaska’s North Slope

The harsh, remote landscape of Alaska’s North Slope does not evoke thoughts of digital transformation. At yet when it is home to many of your company’s assets, as is the case for ConocoPhillips, sometimes the best IT strategy is to bring technologies closer to the edge.

“Aside from being extremely cold, working on the Slope presents major supply chain challenges,” says Pragati Mathur, chief digital and information officer for the energy exploration and production stalwart. “Carlo had an inkling that 3D printing could really change the game.”

Mathur, who held tech chief roles at Staples and Biogen before coming to ConocoPhillips in 2021, is referring to Carlo De Bernardi, a principal engineer at ConocoPhillips responsible for scaling the company’s adoption of 3D printing. To understand 3D printing’s value proposition in this region, says De Bernardi, you must first appreciate the extreme operating conditions. 

On Alaska’s North Slope, about 250 miles from Fairbanks, lies Kuparuk (pictured above). A stone’s throw from the Arctic Ocean, the region is subject to winters as long as they are harsh. Temperatures frequently drop to negative 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and polar nights plunge the area into darkness for weeks at a time.

Yet this site is home to one of ConocoPhillips’s three major development programs in the state, and central to its operations are the company’s gas turbines. Through a process of combustion, these turbines compress most associated natural gas, which is then re-injected into the reservoir for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), which in turn generates the electricity that powers production facilities, support infrastructure, and some drilling equipment, such as draw works and mud pumps.

The process of combustion that enables the turbines to compress associated natural gas and produce electricity is itself enabled by a key component known as a burner plug, which allows fuel to be mixed with compressed air. With use, these plugs wear out, and since many of the original plugs are no longer manufactured, they can be replaced only by local machine shops that still employ traditional manufacturing processes.

Such processes are laborious. They involve a manual up-front design phase followed by handoffs across the supply chain and miles of transportation, a sequence of events that can take 30 weeks if not longer. For other critical parts, such as choke valves, this process doestake longer, sometimes a year. Such lead times call for a large physical inventory of replacement parts, which comes with warehousing costs and the ad valorem tax of storage.

“There had to be a better way,” says De Bernardi. So Mathur and De Bernardi put together a cross-functional team to develop a strategy that would rely heavily on partnerships across the company.

Reining in the rugged and remote

Through rapid cycles of discovery and experimentation, Mathur and De Bernardi’s cross-functional team devised a solution that leaned heavily on additive manufacturing, more commonly known as “3D printing.” Using this technology, ConocoPhillips can now simulate many designs for various parts and, by extension, find the best configuration before manufacturing the part. These configurations are then converted by one of the company’s additive manufacturing partners into a print file, which is then in turn “printed” into three-dimensional objects consisting of metals or plastics.  

ConocoPhillips

With additive manufacturing, the company can now replace burner plugs in 2-3 weeks instead of 30. “And the new plugs [produced via 3D printing] perform just as well, if not better,” says De Bernardi. “With traditional methods of manufacturing, everything with casting and forgings takes a very long time. This solution can eliminate many steps and miles from the equation.”

In another early victory in Alaska, the cross-functional team cut the time to produce choke valves from 45 weeks to 5, sometimes fewer. The new valves (used in water injection wells) are created 10 times faster and have a longer use-life than those manufactured by traditional means. Using the same technology, ConocoPhillips’ Canada business unit reduced the lead time to create swing-check valves from 32 weeks to mere days.

These early wins are reason for optimism. Mathur says the data-driven nature of the solution will in time strengthen the capability. “Each time we design a part, we create an opportunity to see how that digital design performed,” she explains. “And if we use that data to create a feedback loop in our design algorithm, the possibilities are very compelling.”

Optimism for the future

Looking to the future, the company sees a combination of AI and 3D printing as a recipe that will repeatedly drive efficiency. For example, as more parts are designed digitally, less physical space will be needed to store them. “More and more, we want to make parts available on demand by printing them closer to where they’re needed,” De Bernardi says. Over time, we’ll replace some of our physical inventory with a digital one, and that will improve efficiency, advance ESG metrics, and make sites like Kuparuk feel closer to home.”

ConocoPhillips

He explains that by using additive manufacturing to print these parts the company can achieve operational efficiencies not feasible in traditional “subtractive” manufacturing processes. “We can now print choke valves with complex geometries that reduce the amount of fuel we burn to operate an asset.” According to De Bernardi, enhancements like these can reduce operational emissions and put the company closer to its ambition of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

“We can also avoid logistical challenges,” explains Mayra Martinez Nikken, director of supply chain excellence for assets in Alaska. She explains that since 3D printing happens closer to the point of use, the company can reduce the transportation associated with those parts.  

ConocoPhillips

Also, because the company recognizes that an industry-wide effort will accelerate 3D printing adoption more effectively than working in isolation, De Bernardi, on behalf of ConocoPhillips, is leading the effort to define and advocate for the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Standard 20S, a first-of-its-kind technical standard to qualify and certify additive manufacturing processes across the oil and gas industry. The company has also partnered with several other operators to create a platform to host a digital inventory for the entire industry.

Meanwhile, with every part newly designed and printed, this rugged and remote area becomes a little more manageable for the teams who live there.

“If you can start bypassing the physical limitations,” says Mathur, “you’ll reap benefits that go way beyond your bottom line. You’ll start driving change in the environment and in the economy at large. And you’ll start to realize that what you once thought of as remote is actually central to what you do.”