With energy demands rising and reserves of oil and gas becoming more
challenging to access, the productivity revolution promoted by the
Industrial Internet is of vital importance to the oil and gas sector. By
combining decades of manufacturing expertise with its rapidly expanding
software engineering capability, GE is leading the big data revolution
so that its customers can operate both more effectively and efficiently.
The Industrial Internet drives improved business outcomes for
customers by harvesting the vast quantities of data produced by the GE
machines they have installed, such as jet engines and MRI scanners, and
feeding this into advanced analytical systems. By analyzing the data it
is possible to pursue the ‘power of one percent’, a GE term which states
that efficiencies of only one percent can make a dramatic impact across
the $32.3 trillion of relevant sectors.
In the oil and gas sector, GE is working in partnership with BP to
ensure the efficient operation of critical rotating machinery found on
the energy company’s production facilities. Such equipment includes
compressors, generators and critical pumps that are vital to ensure the
safe extraction and transportation of oil and gas, around the globe.
By analyzing sensor data such as vibration, rotor position,
temperature, pressure flow and other parameters, GE is able to identify
changes in the operating condition of the machine or determine that the
machine is no longer performing at its optimal capacity. Identifying the
early onset of abnormal operating conditions minimizes disruption and
avoids unnecessary periods of down time that often result in lost
production or increased costs. For example, BP aims to extend the
running period between overhauls without interruption, a substantial
challenge due to the aging infrastructure associated with some parts of
the industry and the highly challenging environment that it has to
operate in.
BP has deployed GE’s System1TM and SmartSignalTM software across a
number of its offshore production facilities located in the UK and
Norwegian sectors of the North Sea, along with other key oil and gas
areas such as Gulf of Mexico, Caspian Sea and Angola. Utilizing their
investment in offshore network connectivity, BP is able to remotely
monitor its machinery from its Advanced Collaborative Environment (ACE)
center in Aberdeen and take advantage of expert support from any of GE’s
dedicated remote monitoring centers around the world. Remote monitoring
has a number of benefits for customers, not least because it removes
the need to bring extra staff on to the rig to undertake physical
monitoring in an environment which can be plagued by hostile weather
conditions. It also means that experts can be consulted remotely from
anywhere around the world, as required.
GE assists BP to harvest and manage large volumes of data from
sensors installed on its offshore machines with the ability to vary the
amount of data being captured based on operating status and when a
potential problem is identified so that an accurate diagnosis can be
made and preemptive interventions taken. BP’s objective is to eliminate
defects in operations, and this solution ultimately allows BP to take a
more proactive approach to maintenance, whilst having additional
insights to manage risk.
The extraction of oil is a highly complex process and is made more
difficult by the fact that the oil is often mixed with pockets of
hydrocarbon gas. Moreover, with exploration targeting new frontiers in
ever more demanding and challenging locations with increasing water
depths, companies such as BP are looking to deploy advanced technologies
to enable access to these reserves.
As Gillian Goby, Performance Enhancements Team Leader of BP notes:
“The oil and gas industry is an extremely dynamic sector that places
great demands on its personnel and equipment. Any solution that helps to
ensure the integrity of our assets whilst minimizing production
disruptions, offers significant benefits for our operations. BP highly
values condition monitoring because it helps us manage our machines more
effectively by allowing us to identify developing abnormal conditions
and plan our maintenance activities.”
The synthesis of big data and engineering excellence forms the
backbone of GE’s offering in the oil and gas sector. As customers like
BP understand, the sector presents many challenges, but with the advent
of big data and the Industrial Internet there is much scope to eliminate
variability of performance and increase up-time in oil and gas
exploration and extraction. The harnessing of oil helped drive the
Industrial Revolution, and now such transformative power is being driven
by the next technological revolution, the Industrial Internet.
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