Shell’s QGC business is at the forefront of using digital technologies

Shell’s QGC business is located in Queensland in Eastern Australia. They are one of Australia’s leading natural gas producers, focused on developing Queensland’s world-class onshore gas reserves. Shell’s QGC business produces natural gas to supply the Australian domestic market and for export as LNG via our two-train LNG liquefaction plant on Curtis Island in Queensland. QGC produces natural gas from the Surat Basin of southern Queensland and supplies domestic and international markets. 

Every day there are around 1,400 people safely going about their work in our business – maintaining over 7,000 kilometers of gathering pipelines and 25 processing facilities, inspecting more than 3,160 wells. Therefore, it is imperative that team members arrive on the site equipped with the right parts and the right information to carry out their work.  

Challenge 

To send personnel into the field with the right information so their time is not wasted, critical and relevant engineering information, typically held across many different systems, needs to be quickly and easily accessible. The information also needs to be up to date and accurate, with any changes managed and tracked.  

Breakthrough 

To make their information readily accessible, Shell’s QGC business implemented Bentley’s AssetWise ALIM as an engineering data warehouse establishing a master tag registry to maintain data integrity and initially storing more than 20 million data points. Later, in order to provide online access while out in the field and support the growing information needs of the business, they moved their ALIM implementation to the Azure cloud, providing a single portal of engineering data with consistent informational integrity. Now, Shell’s QGC business is doubling the number of documents and model files (and the associated data points) in AssetWise migrating project documentation from an EPC-based system to their digital twin environment.  

Outcome 

Shell’s QGC business maintenance crews drive over 1 million kilometers per month and arrive on site with the right information to do the work saving time and money. Their operations have also improved efficiency with less data search time and fewer application licenses, and they have increased the accuracy of their information.  

Collaboration with their many engineering contractors has been strengthened with enhanced transparency between the design and engineering functions. Information updates are scheduled and delivered to Shell by contractors with minimal manual intervention. The system has enabled the re-use of original engineering design on Brownfield projects reducing design time and costs.