In an upstream investor presentation, which was sent to Rigzone by the BP team recently, Gordon Birrell, BP’s EVP of Production and Operations, said the company is “busy developing the next wave of technologies”.
“Advances in seismic imaging and processing is enabling us to create an innovative digital twin of the sub-surface,” Birrell noted in the presentation, adding that “this will unlock more value as we further reduce sub-surface uncertainties ahead of drilling”.
“On drilling and rig automation, we will focus on expanding automation in our rig fleet, leveraging data analytics for drilling optimization, and early detection of unplanned events,” Birrell stated in the presentation.
“We are also further developing our ability to leverage AI and high-performance computing when we plan new wells,” he went on to note.
Offering an example in the presentation, Birrell said, in Azerbaijan, the company is “making exciting progress towards reducing the time required to design a well from months down to weeks”.
Birrell also highlighted in the presentation that, through the company’s partnership with Palantir, it is “further enhancing” its “predictive analytics capability, incorporating unstructured data to forecast equipment failures, thereby improving facility reliability and promoting early intervention”.
A statement posted on Palantir’s website in September last year announced that Palantir and BP had agreed to a “five year strategic relationship with new AI capabilities”. That statement noted that, since 2014, Palantir software has been deployed widely by BP to support its oil and gas production operations.
Lost Capability?
In the BP upstream investor presentation, Birrell said, “there is maybe a perception by some that, over the past few years, we have lost our technical and execution capability”.
He added, however, that “this is simply not the case”.
“We have as many engineers and geoscientists working for BP today as we did in 2019. And, thanks to our agile flow to work model and digital efficiencies, the same number of people can now execute a greater amount of work,” Birrell noted.
In the presentation, Birrell said BP is a leader in seismic imaging.
“We can now model thousands of sub-surface scenarios compared to a handful just a few years ago,” he stated, adding that “this reduces risk by providing us with a much better idea of the range of outcomes”.
Looking at drilling in the presentation, Birrell said automation and technologies, such as real-time geosteering, are helping the company to minimize non-productive time and improve drilling direction accuracy.
“This helps to increase resource recovery,” he highlighted.
Focusing on “AI and advanced analytics” in the presentation, Birrell noted that, between 2022 and 2024, the company “increased BP operated production by around four percent and protected around 10 percent more from going offline through surveillance and real-time monitoring and analysis”.
“We now have acoustic sensing installed on over 400 offshore wells to continuously monitor for sand incursion into the well. This allows us to proactively intervene and avoid costly outages,” he said in the presentation.
Fundamentally Reset Strategy
In a statement posted on its website last week, BP announced a “fundamentally reset strategy”.
“BP today introduced a fundamentally reset strategy, with significant capital reallocation, and plans to drive improved performance, aimed at growing free cash flow, returns and long-term shareholder value,” the company said in the statement, which was published on February 26.
This strategy will see BP grow its upstream oil and gas business, focus its downstream business, and invest with increasing discipline into the transition, the company noted in the statement.
“Today we have fundamentally reset BP’s strategy,” BP Chief executive Murray Auchincloss said in the statement.
“We are reducing and reallocating capital expenditure to our highest-returning businesses to drive growth, and relentlessly pursuing performance improvements and cost efficiency. This is all in service of sustainably growing cash flow and returns,” he added.
In the statement, BP highlighted that it was increasing investment in oil and gas, outlining that it expects to spend around $10 billion per annum through 2027. It also revealed in the statement that production is expected to grow to 2.3 – 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2030 “with capacity to increase to 2035” and pointed out that “10 new major projects” will start up by the end of 2027.
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