OREANDA-NEWS. February 01, 2016. GE Oil & Gas (NYSE: GE) today announced the creation of its new Oil & Gas Digital Solutions business, appointing Matthias Heilmann as head of the organization and Chief Digital Officer.  GE also announced the development of a pilot program with BP and a business partnership with subsurface software company Paradigm.    

“Digitization has become not only a competitive differentiator but increasingly, a necessity,” said Lorenzo Simonelli, Chief Executive Officer of GE Oil & Gas. “We are evolving our business and digital offerings to match the needs of our customers, partnering with them to embrace the transition and help make their businesses stronger long-term.”

New Business for GE Oil & Gas

As leader of the new GE Oil & Gas Digital Solutions business, Heilmann will oversee the development of digital capabilities powered by Predix* - GE’s cloud platform for the Industrial Internet - driving asset and operations optimization for the oil and gas industry. Heilmann joins GE from ABB where he led the company’s Global Product Group Enterprise Software business, including overseeing critical technology transformation and the development of key partnerships across the business. He brings more than 20 years of industry expertise in technology, software, operations, and finance.

GE and BP Co-Creating Digital Solution to Reduce Unplanned Downtime for Offshore Operations

Unplanned production downtime, particularly in offshore operations, has a major impact on revenue and profitability.  GE and BP are co-creating a new industry approach, developing and piloting a new digital solution for BP's offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. This pioneering solution aims to increase facility reliability by looking holistically at the process level.  Moving beyond the equipment, the solution will introduce new process surveillance and predictive analytic tools to provide early warnings of potential facility issues.

“As we move to a digital world in the oil and gas industry, we look to digital technologies to help us move to the next level of operational excellence.  These digital technologies offer the opportunity to collaboratively develop industry-leading solutions to address some of the most significant challenges in field operations,” said Dave Feineman, senior advisor on digital technology in BP’s Upstream Technology organization.

This solution will provide analytical insights at enterprise scale through knowledge sharing on demand.  Now process engineers can eliminate disruptions by being proactive and analyze problems more efficiently, based on having underlying insights available when needed to advise the offshore team and take action. 

Utilizing GE’s Asset Performance Management (APM) software and Predix , the solution is scalable enterprise wide and can be deployed rapidly and globally at low cost.

Reservoir Driven Production Optimization

GE Oil & Gas and Paradigm have partnered to deliver Reservoir Driven Production Optimization (RDPO) as part of GE's digital suite for oil and gas. Paradigm, an independent software developer for the oil and gas industry, is a leader in developing reservoir modeling and petrotechnical services. RDPO, powered by Predix, is a first-of-its-kind upstream solution for optimizing field level production by integrating Paradigm's subsurface knowledge with GE's production intelligence.

In today’s economic environment, operators need to maximize the life of existing reservoirs while reducing operating costs.  Improving problem detection and treatment design alone can reduce operational costs by 10-25% through fewer interventions and more efficient resource utilization. RDPO provides a clearer understanding of the reservoir geology, permanent monitoring of wells, and predictive analytics, so that operators are better equipped to understand risks and act upon them.  

With growing instrumentation throughout the oilfield, operators have access real-time production data such as pressures and flow rates. RDPO enables production engineers to make use of all that data, conduct nodal analyses and evaluate diagnostics via links to a 3D model of the subsurface.  The result is a better understanding of the impact of production interventions before taking costly and potentially adverse actions.  

“Today, production engineers often rely on single well analysis to make production decisions that have field-wide impact.  Partnering with GE, we can now provide a unified view of both production and reservoir data for optimal decision making,” said Arshad Matin, CEO of Paradigm.

Through this collaboration, GE and Paradigm can help operators exceed production targets and manage operational costs by selecting superior infill drilling locations, improving well intervention strategies and optimizing and predicting flood behavior.

*Trademark of the General Electric Company