A Cooperative Effort Pushes FB iSyte Project Forward

Late in 2008, two of our largest customers alerted Ferguson Beauregard personnel that they would be developing more and more of their well sites on a pad basis, which would consolidate a larger number of wells at a single well-pad location. Ferguson Beauregard already supplied both of these customers with its RTU5000 Shared Flow Controllers, which are able to manage four wells at a time, but they were looking for a new system that could manage even more wells at a single site.

Taking that idea and running with it, and getting continual input from three valued customers that all operate in the Western Region, Ferguson Beauregard is in the process of finalizing development of a Multi-Well Site Controller, or “FB iSyte,” that promises to revolutionize the industry.

“We're creating the first automation system that operates via an embedded PC rather than a traditional hardware platform, which allows us to run various programs,” said Jason Fortner, Sales and Service/Automation Specialist in the Western Region for Ferguson Beauregard. “In essence, iSyte is not limited to controlling plunger lift. It's going to be a product that can grow and morph with the industry. We don't know where, when or what the needs of oil and gas producers will be five years from now. It's a design platform that has basically any capability and various aspects that have never been attempted before. We're trying to create the most innovative and aggressive hardware system that's ever been attempted.”

The entire project is a collaborative effort between Ferguson Beauregard customers and its field staff. One of the customers worked with the FB staff during the prototype stage and had an iSyte installed at its location in Weld County, CO. Another customer, one of Ferguson Beauregard's largest and longest-standing automation customers in Colorado's DJ/Wattenberg Basin, has been working on the development of a similar system that allows iSyte to connect to its CygNet SCADA host system.

“Both of those companies asked if we could develop a product that can handle more equipment to reduce costs and reduce the number of pieces of hardware,” said Fortner. “Their input has been crucial and they've been very forthcoming with their suggestions and insight.”

FB iSyte has been operating during the day at a customer's well battery for three months and the results have been encouraging.

“The results have been good, production looks good and we're just starting to get data collected from the Electronic Flow Meters,” said Fortner. “We're still in that development stage, and we're also working on the host communications right now. Once we have the host communications in place we can install the equipment at another customer's facility.”

According to Fortner, this project has been able to come this far, this fast thanks to the cooperation of several of our valued customers, as well as the abilities of the 20-person staff that has been tasked with creating the new iSyte.

“We had our initial conference in mid-December (2008) where the decision was made to move forward with the multi-well controller instead of overhauling our current hardware, so in the last eight or nine months, we've made considerable progress,” said Fortner. “We've brought together a really talented group of people and we've got an incredibly strong team. It's a pleasure to work with everyone involved, and they're the reason why we have progressed as far as we have.”