Oil and Gas monitoring using Wireless Sensor Networks: Requirements, issues and challenges

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) involve top potential technologies that will dramatically change the way of human living and working. Many scientific, industrial and environmental applications require real time information related to physical events like pressure, temperature or humidity. In the past the only way to transfer the sensed data to control center was through cumbersome, costly wires. But recent advancement in wireless networking enables WSNs to communicate the sensed real time event data wirelessly. WSNs have capabilities of sensing, processing and communicating which make them most suitable for monitoring different oil and gas industries upstream, midstream and downstream operations which help to increase production, decrease the accidents, maintenance cost and malfunctioning. The contributions of this paper are threefold. First, we highlight various characteristics of both WSNs and Oil and Gas Industrial environment. Second, we present major requirements of Oil and Gas industrial operations in the three sectors upstream, midstream and downstream. Third, we present the important issues and challenges specific to Oil and Gas industrial environment which affects the working and efficacy of WSNs. These issues and challenges should be considered by the researchers and developers who are planning to design a WSNs based solution for Oil and Gas monitoring.