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  1. Home
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  3. Technology
  4. bp's technology approach
  5. Facilities Technologies

Facilities Technologies

Develop and progress technology solutions that drive performance improvement in global operations and wells organizations

We operate in some of the most inhospitable parts of the worlds and must be confident that our platforms, facilities and pipelines can withstand the challenges they face - 24 hours a day.

 

Our Facilities technology team focuses on delivering technology solutions to our Upstream business that characterise, mitigate and manage risks.  These may be modelling to predict the rate cracks appear in offshore risers under the strain of wind and waves, condition monitoring of our rotating equipment to develop timely maintenance programmes, non-intrusive inspection so we can investigate pipeline integrity, or new chemicals to inhibit corrosion or remediate hydrates.

 

Facilities technologies deployed in Azerbaijan:

 

  • Highly Reliable Chemical Injection Systems - efficient, reliable application of chemicals, supported by Chemical Management Suite (part of BP’s CIC Toolkit) to track performance. Deployed across ACG
  • Equipment Out of Service (EOOS) - Monitoring tool, quantifies risk based on the integrity of the safeguards/ Safety Critical Elements, especially during maintenance. We have trialled EOOS in Central Azeri where we analysed risk from loss of containment on over 400 Safety Critical Elements.
  • Pipeline inspection gauge (PIG) is a special tool used to inspect the internal conditions of a pipeline, capture and record the geometry and reveal any corrosion information related to the pipelines. This information is then downloaded to a computer when the PIG is removed from the pipe to enable engineers to 'see' inside the line. This process is known as intelligent pigging.
  • To ensure the integrity of subsea pipelines, rigorous monitoring is done by using remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV). The challenge we face is poor visibility in the murky Caspian waters, particularly in water depths of less than 25m. So, we have introduced some state-of-the-art equipment never utilised in the Caspian before to provide pipeline assurance. It carries out acoustic surveys, it works well and it allows inspections to be performed faster and more efficiently. Caspian became one of the leading regions utilising AUV technology and is exporting knowledge around the segment concerning these operations
  • Direct Electrical Heating in Shah Deniz, as a tool to mitigate the development of hydrates
  • Crawler inspection tool has successfully deployed on caissons, upscale and is continually applied to the Central Azeri and Deepwater Gunashli platforms.
  • Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles - Offshore Structure Drone Inspection. This technology is deployed on West Chirag and Central Azeri.