Oil Industries are the extensive users of a variety of devices from offshore oil rigs to down the street gas stations. Most of these devices remain point solutions to meet a limited set of tasks or resolve a localized problem like detecting gas leakage in pipelines or controlling a motorized drive or simple metering of energy. When these disparate devices are connected to work in unison as a part of the enterprise , the organization derives tremendous benefits in terms of top line growth, cost savings , compliance of environmental law requirements and energy savings .

E Gas Station Technology

"e Gas Station Technology " has been launched by Sun Microsystems in partnership with leading technological firms. Detailed description of e gas station appears as the feature story released by Sun Microsystems in the last week of December 2001.

Oil and gas companies already benefiting from group-wide implementation of ERP can enhance the benefits of automation solutions at its next generation gas stations which can link the enterprise and its retail outlets into one coherent organization.

E Gas Technology is not a futuristic wish , but a ready for deployment solution one can witness working at Sun's I Force Ready Center, Menlo Park, California.

First Internet Systems, have been one of the key partners in e Gas Station Technology and FIS eB framework which integrates devices applications and business solutions for service process automation , has been deployed in e Gas Station Technology.

Online Fuel Quality Monitoring System

With the deregulation of oil prices in many countries and subsidized petroleum derivatives of common use offering tremendous scope for adulteration , fuel quality at retail outlets will be a major differentiator in winning customer loyalty. The adulteration of low cost derivatives with petrol and diesel is the primary concern of the oil companies as well as the customers. FIS eB offers possible solution to provide online monitoring of fuel quality at a central location coupled with wireless alert messaging to quality assurance officers either as a possible add on to e gas station technology or as an independent solution.

Urgent Messaging System

FIS eB provides solutions to improve the uptime of process equipments or assist in energy conservation. For instance it can integrate with environment monitoring systems, plant control systems or pipe line control systems or network monitoring system and deliver maintenance events which are captured by any of these systems , as wireless messages , directly to the right person.

Automatic Tanker Filling System

With its ability in integrating devices and business applications , FIS eB extends solutions in automating the operations at tanker yards. This will help oil companies achieve higher thru put and ability to get integrated with ERP systems in such a way that credit controls and billing systems can be fused in to the total system. Network Planning and Dynamic Pricing Model In deregulated fuel pricing environment, oil companies operating through multiple oil refineries, network of tanker stations , depots and retail outlet agencies require total integration of equipments and gas station along the sales chain. FIS eB provides a framework, which integrates the whole operation including centralized price updates, logistics, tanker filling activities and supply order updates.

Energy Saving Systems

FIS's FIS eB solutions provide a framework, which can be customized in different environments to develop a rule-based logic for messaging or response.

In high energy- consuming industries, it is not mere inability to identify the problem areas which fail to prevent energy leakage but the failure to continuously measure critical parameters .Even where they are detected , the failure to contact the right person at the right time happens to be the prime reason for energy losses.

Most of the maintenance people are mobile and the time elapsed between problem , problem detection and message conveyance make a lot of difference.

Oil Industry is one of the largest users of electrical energy to empower the processing equipments. The electrical maintenance engineer has to make a delicate balance between maximum demand of energy and average requirement of energy. Higher energy projection results in higher fixed charges and lower projections result in penal levy in the form of maximum demand charges.

In a large factory multiple agencies involved in operating machinery and many a time the day to switching on or off will be driven by energy cost saving but by the need of the moment. Most cases a little shift in timing of switching of equipment will not affect the productivity. But the absence of on line information, non-availability of trends in the past and inability to react immediately upon reaching the threshold limits make the factory electrical engineer's life difficult.

If these measurements including R Y B currents are done through electronic meters at specified intervals, FIS eB can provide the factory electric engineers the necessary rule engine to optimize the power utilization without sacrificing productivity.