Emerging Technology and Best Practices Seminar Series

Speaker: Mr. Robert J. Waring (Bob) (Bio)

Seminar Title: Success and Future Challenges: Experiences from an Early Adopter

BP is seeking to fundamentally transform its business processes and
operations, customer offers, environmental impact, and the very nature of work through the application of the latest sensor networks, which allow real-time or near- real time monitoring of physical assets, products, people and the environment. We have achieved a range of tangible results in several areas.

Our Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) business has successfully deployed remote monitoring of customer tank fill levels at over 2000 tanks. BP's Petrochemicals Nitriles has deployed a telemetry and satellite sensory net to monitor rail car temperature, weight, acceleration (impact) and location, allowing BP to closely monitor safety data on hazardous cargoes and increase turns. In another safety and environmental project, we are pushing the envelope of the capabilities of technology by trialing motes to detect intrusion by construction crews within a defined proximity to underground pipelines to prevent catastrophic incidents. Similarly, we are trialing motes to monitor pump and engine conditions in the harsh environment of our ocean tanker Loch Rannoch, allowing shut downs before catastrophic failure and tuned maintenance regimes. Other examples involve the use of RFID tags on LPG bottles to create efficiencies, working with BP's Castrol lubricants to create competitive advantage from their RFID tagging and pipeline corrosion monitoring through mesh networks.

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