GE Software to Connect BP Wells to Industrial Internet

BP Plc will deploy data management software from GE across its global operations to enhance operational efficiency.

The software will allow BP’s field engineers to capture, store, contextualize and visualize data in real-time, making it available to the right people at the right time so they can make informed decisions, GE said.

“Based in industry averages, for each week a well is out of commission, operators experience revenue losses of more than $3 million for a subsea well,” said Kate Johnson, GE Intelligent Platforms Software CEO and GE Chief Commercial Officer, in a July 8 press statement. “In today’s low price oil environment, it is increasingly important for customers to embrace Industrial Internet technologies to increase uptime and maximize production.”

The production optimization project will initially connect 650 BP wells to the Industrial Internet; that number will expand to 4,000 worldwide over the next few years, GE subsidiary GE Intelligent Platforms Software announced Wednesday.  GE and BP will work closely together through the agreement’s initial phase, placing engineers onsite to work through the global implementation.

Over the past year, GE has significantly expanded its portfolio of Industrial Internet tools for the oil and gas sector to help increase production in a low oil price environment, said Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO of GE Oil and Gas.

GE and BP have worked closely together since 2008, driving data analysis and instrumentation to boost operational reliability at sites that include Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caspian Sea and Angola.

All of the basins where the software will be deployed are offshore, and would have subsea applications, with the exception of Prudhoe Bay, a large onshore field, GE officials told Rigzone in an email statement.

BP officials told Rigzone that the project is not an IT or technology project, but a “business change project.”