The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
BP boss says North Sea key test ground for tech Energy: Oil giant intends to build business using cutting-edge innovation
The North Sea could be used as a testing ground for new innovations to be exported around the world, says BP’s technology boss.
Ahmed Hashmi said strides with automated oil installations and data analytics are among areas where the energy giant wants looking to improve its business.
“We have always used places like the North Sea and Alaska”
He said: “What I find really encouraging is there is a resurgence in technology in the North Sea and it looks like the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) is helping to ignite that.
“In BP we have always used places like the North Sea and Alaska to test technology we want to take elsewhere.
“We have deep capabilities in Aberdeen and we use that for testing things like seismic technology.”
BP is now rolling out a new technology around the world that it first trialled in the North Sea.
Aberdeen-based Return to Scene (R2S) has a scanning technology that was first applied by Police Scotland to digitally revisit crime scenes. BP used the tech to create visualisations of its North Sea platforms and remotely plan work.
After piloting it in the North Sea it is now planned for a roll-out in areas like the Gulf of Mexico, Trinidad, Indonesia, Angola and Azerbaijan.
Mr Hashmi believes it’s possible to greatly change its business through new strides in innovation. He said: “There’s potential for a significant movement towards automation.
“That of course leads to more remote operations and taking people out of harm’s way in the frontier. The other area we are seeing advances in is data analytics.
“I think the cycle time in which decisions are being made will be much quicker as we use data.”