In an upstream investor presentation, which was despatched to Rigzone by the BP staff not too long ago, Gordon Birrell, BP’s EVP of Manufacturing and Operations, mentioned the corporate is “busy creating the following wave of applied sciences”.
“Advances in seismic imaging and processing is enabling us to create an progressive digital twin of the sub-surface,” Birrell famous within the presentation, including that “this may unlock extra worth as we additional scale back sub-surface uncertainties forward of drilling”.
“On drilling and rig automation, we are going to deal with increasing automation in our rig fleet, leveraging knowledge analytics for drilling optimization, and early detection of unplanned occasions,” Birrell acknowledged within the presentation.
“We’re additionally additional creating our potential to leverage AI and high-performance computing after we plan new wells,” he went on to notice.
Providing an instance within the presentation, Birrell mentioned, in Azerbaijan, the corporate is “making thrilling progress in direction of decreasing the time required to design a effectively from months right down to weeks”.
Birrell additionally highlighted within the presentation that, by way of the corporate’s partnership with Palantir, it’s “additional enhancing” its “predictive analytics functionality, incorporating unstructured knowledge to forecast tools failures, thereby enhancing facility reliability and selling early intervention”.
An announcement posted on Palantir’s web site in September final 12 months introduced that Palantir and BP had agreed to a “5 12 months strategic relationship with new AI capabilities”. That assertion famous that, since 2014, Palantir software program has been deployed broadly by BP to assist its oil and fuel manufacturing operations.
Misplaced Functionality?
Within the BP upstream investor presentation, Birrell mentioned, “there may be possibly a notion by some that, over the previous few years, now we have misplaced our technical and execution functionality”.
He added, nevertheless, that “that is merely not the case”.
“We’ve as many engineers and geoscientists working for BP right this moment as we did in 2019. And, because of our agile stream to work mannequin and digital efficiencies, the identical variety of folks can now execute a better quantity of labor,” Birrell famous.
Within the presentation, Birrell mentioned BP is a frontrunner in seismic imaging.
“We are able to now mannequin 1000’s of sub-surface eventualities in comparison with a handful just some years in the past,” he acknowledged, including that “this reduces danger by offering us with a a lot better concept of the vary of outcomes”.
drilling within the presentation, Birrell mentioned automation and applied sciences, similar to real-time geosteering, are serving to the corporate to attenuate non-productive time and enhance drilling path accuracy.
“This helps to extend useful resource restoration,” he highlighted.
Specializing in “AI and superior analytics” within the presentation, Birrell famous that, between 2022 and 2024, the corporate “elevated BP operated manufacturing by round 4 % and guarded round 10 % extra from going offline by way of surveillance and real-time monitoring and evaluation”.
“We now have acoustic sensing put in on over 400 offshore wells to constantly monitor for sand incursion into the effectively. This permits us to proactively intervene and keep away from expensive outages,” he mentioned within the presentation.
Basically Reset Technique
In a press release posted on its web site final week, BP introduced a “basically reset technique”.
“BP right this moment launched a basically reset technique, with important capital reallocation, and plans to drive improved efficiency, geared toward rising free money stream, returns and long-term shareholder worth,” the corporate mentioned within the assertion, which was printed on February 26.
This technique will see BP develop its upstream oil and fuel enterprise, focus its downstream enterprise, and make investments with growing self-discipline into the transition, the corporate famous within the assertion.
“In the present day now we have basically reset BP’s technique,” BP Chief govt Murray Auchincloss mentioned within the assertion.
“We’re decreasing and reallocating capital expenditure to our highest-returning companies to drive development, and relentlessly pursuing efficiency enhancements and value effectivity. That is all in service of sustainably rising money stream and returns,” he added.
Within the assertion, BP highlighted that it was growing funding in oil and fuel, outlining that it expects to spend round $10 billion each year by way of 2027. It additionally revealed within the assertion that manufacturing is predicted to develop to 2.3 – 2.5 million barrels of oil equal per day in 2030 “with capability to extend to 2035” and identified that “10 new main tasks” will begin up by the top of 2027.
To contact the writer, e-mail andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com