Barco delivers state of the art display wall for Saudi Aramco Operations Coordination Center

Kortrijk, 27 september 2005. Visualization specialist Barco announced today that it was chosen by Saudi Aramco’s Oil Supply Planning and Scheduling (OSPAS) Department to provide the largest display wall ever used in the hydrocarbon and power industry. The new OCC display wall serves as a nerve center for all Saudi Aramco operations and displays all activities in real-time. In short, it integrates the critical operations in oil, gas, shipping, pipelines and refining that define Saudi Aramco.

On 12 September, Aramco’s President and CEO Abdallah S. Jum’ah made history by activating the massive 67-by-3 meter display wall.

The Operations Coordination Center (OCC), where the wall is installed, is part of Saudi Aramco's Oil Supply Planning and Scheduling (OSPAS) Department. "OSPAS is a central planning organization that manages and optimizes hydrocarbon system capacities and inventories to deliver quality products to the customer at the right time and in the right place, with maximum net revenue to Saudi Aramco," said OSPAS Manager Adel H. Al-Dossary. Barco’s curved display wall is divided into five sections, each representing a major area of company operations: Refined Product Network, Terminal Planning and Scheduling, Crude Oil Network, Gas and NGL Network and Electric Power Distribution. The new display wall replaces the previous display system, which was composed of tiled map-boards with LED readouts.

The state-of-the-art display wall is the largest used in the hydrocarbon and power industry. "The map-board information is displayed in a global format, which is easy to view at all times, and this allows us to quickly detect problems before they reach a critical condition," said PMT Senior Project Engineer Saleh Al-Saikhan. "It also helps us effectively find vital information during field emergency situations."

Barco’s innovative display wall consists of 150 separate screens, constructed to form a matrix of 50 columns by 3 rows, which is divided into five individually controlled sections. The display wall uses the latest Digital Light Processing technology (DLP™). "DLP™ projection technology prevents the burn-in effect caused by displaying static data for a long time, often seen in PC monitors and plasma screens," said Al-Abdulhadi, Business System Analyst. "DLP projectors also produce more brightness."

The displayed image on the display wall is the controlling computer screen display. Operators can switch between multiple displays, where each display provides additional useful information. The wall also can display information from several systems, such as an e-map, drawing management systems, real-time control systems, and live video from sources such as plant surveillance cameras. Easily understood symbols and colors show the interrelationship of refining, shipping, and oil and gas operations. For example, tankers scheduled for loading at the terminals have two colors of anchors to illustrate whether a pilot is on board, and an image of a rope shows that the ships are docked at the pier. The graphics can also drill down to increase the level of detail needed by the planners.

This flexibility allows the control center to closely monitor every activity along the control chain of Saudi Aramco's hydrocarbons. There are thousands of remote terminals that monitor hydrocarbon activity and relay data to the OCC. In addition, OCC staff members are constantly in contact with employees at plants, refineries, GOSPs (gas-oil separation plants), terminals and elsewhere.

Jum'ah said that the OSPAS facility is a source of pride for Saudi Aramco. "It has been
one of the best representations of our values of excellence and reliability," he said. “When visitors from all over the world see the OSPAS OCC, they are impressed with both the technology, and the sense of pride and purpose they see in the people who control the flow of hydrocarbons along this giant system of pipelines and production and shipping facilities."

"Today, due to Barco's efforts to implement tomorrow's technology in the workplace, the OCC's operations are more impressive than ever," Jum'ah added, addressing those attending the inauguration. "This is a significant step in our corporation's continuous efforts to be best-in-class and to provide an unmatched level of reliability to our customers in the Kingdom and overseas."

“This project was a huge challenge, but thanks to the excellent cooperation between the different teams, the OSPAS Operation Coordination Center has become a real impressive site,” said Carl Peeters, President of Barco's Control Rooms division.


About Saudi Aramco:
Headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Aramco is a fully integrated global petroleum enterprise in exploration & production, refinement, distribution, shipment, and marketing. It has the world's largest oil reserves and a sustained crude oil production capacity of 10 million barrels per day. Saudi Aramco is active worldwide and has affiliates, joint ventures and subsidiary offices in China, Egypt, Greece, Japan, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and The United States.


About Barco
Barco, an international company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, provides visualization and display solutions for professional markets. Barco designs and develops solutions for large screen visualization, display solutions for life-critical applications, and systems for visual inspection. Barco is active worldwide and has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco is quoted on Euronext Brussels and is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company (Euronext: BAR; Reuters: BARBt.BR; Bloomberg: BAR BB).

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