Book excerpt: Intelligent Digital Oil and Gas Fields: Concepts, Collaboration, and Right-time Decisions delivers to the reader a roadmap through the fast-paced changes in the digital oil field landscape of technology in the form of new sensors, well mechanics such as downhole valves, data analytics and models for dealing with a barrage of data, and changes in the way professionals collaborate on decisions. The book introduces the new age of digital oil and gas technology and process components and provides a backdrop to the value and experience industry has achieved from these in the last few years. The book then takes the reader on a journey first at a well level through instrumentation and measurement for real-time data acquisition, and then provides practical information on analytics on the real-time data. Artificial intelligence techniques provide insights from the data. The road then travels to the "integrated asset" by detailing how companies utilize Integrated Asset Models to manage assets (reservoirs) within DOF context. From model to practice, new ways to operate smart wells enable optimizing the asset. Intelligent Digital Oil and Gas Fields is packed with examples and lessons learned from various case studies and provides extensive references for further reading and a final chapter on the "next generation digital oil field," e.g., cloud computing, big data analytics and advances in nanotechnology. This book is a reference that can help managers, engineers, operations, and IT experts understand specifics on how to filter data to create useful information, address analytics, and link workflows across the production value chain enabling teams to make better decisions with a higher degree of certainty and reduced risk. - Covers multiple examples and lessons learned from a variety of reservoirs from around the world and production situations - Includes techniques on change management and collaboration - Delivers real and readily applicable knowledge on technical equipment, workflows and data challenges such as acquisition and quality control that make up the digital oil and gas field solutions of today - Describes collaborative systems and ways of working and how companies are transitioning work force to use the technology and making more optimal decisions