I want to compliment Herman Storey on his great journey at Shell (2018 Control Process Automation Hall of Fame - Part 2). Some impressive achievements and collaboration, and he has always been "visible" during his career.
I also would second the (growing) need for standards in Asset Health linked to IoT and IIoT. The challenge around having fast but secure access to increased volumes of health data is not an easy equation to solve. Safety, control philosophy, alarm management, work management and the like are to be included in the designs of complex systems, so priorities can be set for how to operate and maintain complex assets. It's fair to say that these factors are often forgotten (or at least an afterthought) during initial capital project studies.
Multidiscipline Engineering is not an easy journey to choose for a career, even though Shell is one of those companies that values thorough planning, design and R&D, and has most of the disciplines in-house at some level. I learned a lot in providing various services for Shell and am still a fan and active member of the ISA community.
Herman, I hope you stay involved with the O&G Digital and Engineering community, as you would be a great mentor and example to many.
Bas Mutsaers
[email protected]
As a long-time system engineer whose work included extensive experience with control systems, I can say that Joe Weiss's observations are correct (Unfettered Blog: 2018 RSA conference observations and the dangerous lack of control system understanding by network security personnel).
Most operations and control system engineers think of security on a regular basis, knowing that control systems are the intelligence that maintain system reliability and stability. I would be surprised if an operations or control systems engineer would say that his control system/operations engineers didn’t seem very interested in security.
When it comes to power systems and infrastructure security, we're vulnerable.
I recently watched a meeting of the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee with Gen. Mike Hayden (U.S.A.F., retired), former CIA Director James Clapper, former National Intelligence director Adm. James Stavridis (U.S. Navy, former commander, U.S. European Command). Observing the senators and panel participants, it was clear they had no idea how to engage cyberattacks and cyber intrusions on power systems and infrastructure. The approaches they cited for engaging cyberattacks and intrusions were based on the tactics of conventional warfare. This lack of understanding of the cyber battlefield will allow for massive damage to the operation of the national grid.
Michael Swearingen
[email protected]
I enjoyed reading Wes Maru’s paper (Water-in-oil analysis uses controlled vortices).
As an educator, I recommend reading Control every month for every ChE student. Keep up the good work!
M. Conrad Huffstutler, P.E., PhD
[email protected]
