Sensor Networks Help British Petroleum Meet Business Needs

British Petroleum, one of the leading oil companies in the world, has been using wireless sensor networks to monitor its industrial plants, pipelines and equipment maintenance for the past few years. P P Darukhanawala, vice president and CTO, British Petroleum, in a conversation with Biztech2.0, highlights the wireless technology trends in the petroleum industry.

Can you share your company’s experience of using mobility and wireless technology in the petroleum industry?

Mobility and wireless technologies are increasingly becoming critical enablers of different business processes. We have been using mobility and wireless technologies in the office space for a long time. This includes the use of WiFi and laptops. However, in case of industrial plants like refineries, chemical plants and offshore platforms, people traditionally use clipboards to write notes and manage things. This can be a very inefficient process so we decided to computerise the system and introduce wireless and mobility solutions. Once the processes were e-enabled, they boosted the productivity of the workers also. Over the last four or five years, we have focussed our energy entirely on trying to bring affordable mobility into our environments.

You have been using sensors and chips for tracking and monitoring of resources. How has this helped business growth?

If you consider operations in areas like offshore platform or oil fields, the ability to monitor things in real time has become absolutely crucial. The reason being, this enables you to take real time decisions and execute corrective actions as things evolve. You cannot operate processes efficiently if you are running blind, thus, collection of data that can be translated into actionable items has become quintessential. Sensors and chips allow us to capture data on a real time basis.

What have been the company’s recent initiatives on this front?

As you start collecting data on per second basis, you get flooded with huge amounts of data. There is no point in just collecting real time data, unless you can turn into pre-emptive actions. That is the reason we have moved on to the area of ‘predictive analytics’, wherein one can go beyond real time and actually predict an event even before it occurs. Real time is often too late because the event has already occurred. We have tried to take it to the next level where real time data is fed into predictive models, which then help you to deal with things like equipment or process failure before it happens.

Can you describe the business areas in which these technologies are being used?

These technologies are being used across our operating environment, ranging from refineries, offshore platforms, pipelines to ocean-going tankers. These technologies are especially important in case of ocean-going tankers as they constantly provide information on the health of the tankers and thus, help to avoid any downtime. In all major business areas, these technologies help to fulfill the need for up-to-date information, which in turn helps us to improve processes.

Does the use of sensor technologies involve RFID chips? What is your take on the prospects of RFID in the petroleum industry?

A very small part of sensor technologies involves the use of RFID chips and that too is restricted to certain supply chain applications. A major portion of the system though involves ultra-wideband technology and different kind of wireless telemetry solutions. The adoption of RFID has been like a roller-coaster ride. There are some applications that have worked well, but the verdict on the cost effectiveness of RFID, particularly in the supply chain area, is still pending. It may get some traction in the future as costs go down and chips become more effective.

What kind of infrastructure is required for developing sensor networks?

Basic infrastructure in terms of wireless connectivity is required i.e. infrastructure has to be in place to carry the sensor information and then feed it to the backend. Other kinds of technologies that come into play are under evolution, which include receivers, sensors and wireless mesh networks. As we go further, technologies like Wimax will also have a major role to play.

What are the kinds of technologies involved in sensor networks?

There is a long list but it primarily depends on the business problem. It could be as basic as RFID chips or it could be something like a full-blown mesh network that provides a wireless connection from sensors to the back end. The entire system involves a range of technologies that are spread over the whole WAN, starting from very basic WiFi to ultra-wideband.

What kind of challenges did BP face while implementing these solutions?

Many areas in petroleum industry involve hazardous operations, so run-of-the-mill mobility solutions, which are used in office spaces, may not suit the demands of such operations. You have to create special hardened and secure solutions that will fulfill your environmental expectations. We started this initiative several years ago, when things were still evolving, so we had to break new grounds. We patiently tried out various things, separated reality from hype and made sure that the technologies we adopted passed industrial endurance tests. The company could not have afforded any sort of downtime at any stage, so we had to be very careful.

According to you, which other industries can make successful use of sensor networks? Is it a cost-effective solution or does it involve a lot of early investment?

It is a horizontal solution that can be applied to a lot of different industries. Investment and costing could be an issue, however, care can be taken while allocating investment budgets to avoid front loading. In today’s age, as technologies develop quickly leading to dramatic cost reductions, a widespread adoption of these systems can be observed.

Also, the field of location intelligence is rapidly evolving. Data evolved from this can be fed into the existing business processes to transform them significantly and bring about new changes.

What kind of future trends do you see in the usage of mobility solutions?

Mobility solutions will become more accessible, powerful and cheaper in the future. With time, we will be able to access a major part of our operations cost effectively and over longer distances, for example, we may have access to and control over thousands of miles of pipelines.