BP and GE announced the start-up of Plant Operations Advisor (POA), a new digital solution designed to improve the efficiency, reliability and safety of BP’s oil and gas production operations. Plant Operations Advisor is already helping BP manage the performance of one of its platforms in the Gulf of Mexico and, subject to a successful pilot, it will be deployed next year to other BP facilities around the world.

The tool, built on GE’s Predix operating system, was created as part of a development partnership the two companies announced in January.

“BP gravitates toward new technologies, especially digital, and that makes working with them particularly exciting,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, president and CEO, GE Oil & Gas. “We are taking a big step forward together during this time of digital transformation, deploying what we’ve co-created over the past year to drive the kind of productivity improvements that the oil and gas industry needs. The global deployment is expected to be the largest-scale deployment of GE’s Predix-powered APM technology to date.”

Plant Operations Advisor will help prevent unplanned downtime and improve facility reliability by helping engineering teams respond quickly to issues as they occur in real-time.

“By bringing together some of the best minds at GE and BP, we were able to develop this innovative digital product and are confident that it will have a significant impact on our business,” said Ahmed Hashmi, BP’s Head of Upstream Technology. “When fully deployed, these advanced digital technologies will change the way we work and improve the integrity and performance of our assets around the globe.”

Using GE’s Predix and Asset Performance Management (APM) capabilities, POA rapidly integrates operational data from producing oil and gas facilities to deliver notifications and analytical reports to engineers so they can identify operational performance issues before they become significant.

The system provides simplified access to a variety of live data feeds and includes visualization capabilities including a real-time facility threat display. It also incorporates an extensive case management capability to support learnings from prior operational issues.

GE intends to offer this technology, which combines big data, cloud hosting, and analytics on both individual pieces of equipment as well as the entire production system, as an APM solution that will be available to the industry.

About BP

Over the past 10 years, BP (NYSE: BP) has invested more than $90 billion in the U.S. – more than any other energy company. BP is a leading producer of oil and gas and produces enough energy annually to light nearly the entire country for a year. Employing about 14,000 people across the country, BP supports more than 130,000 additional jobs through all of its business activities.

About GE

GE (NYSE:GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

About GE Oil & Gas

GE Oil & Gas is inventing the next industrial era in the oil and gas sector. In our labs and factories, and in the field, we constantly push the boundaries of technology to solve today’s toughest operational & commercial challenges. We have the skills, knowledge and technical expertise to bring together the physical and digital worlds to fuel the future.