Nov 15 (Reuters) - BP PLC said on Tuesday it will usea new digital solution by General Electric Co designed toimprove the efficiency and safety of its offshore oil platformsby predicting equipment breakdowns before they occur.
BP, one of the largest oil producers in the U.S. Gulf ofMexico, said GE's Plant Operations Advisor (POA) software shouldhelp it save more than $200 million annually from its deployment at up to 33 platforms globally.
The POA gathers data from various pieces of equipment onoffshore platforms and processes it through GE's proprietaryPredix software to inform BP engineers when a part may be nearbreaking down.
Terms of the BP-GE deal were not disclosed. The twocompanies started a partnership earlier this year with the goalof developing oilfield efficiency products.
"This makes it much easier for people to act on theinformation and the data we already collect," said Ahmed Hashmi,head of upstream technology at BP.
BP estimates that using the GE software program will boostits efficiency by 2 percent to 4 percent.
For GE's part, executives are hoping the BP partnership willportend future opportunities across the oil industry, especiallyahead of the company's merger of its oil and gas division withBaker Hughes.
"Baker Hughes provides more opportunity to take Big Datainto the oilfields," said Lorenzo Simonelli, chief executive ofGE Oil & Gas. "We're seeing good examples of how big data ischanging the outcomes of the oil and gas industry." (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Marguerita Choy)