BP Deploying Smart Glasses Across Their Operation Sites

Even if the digital oilfield is a relatively new trend in O&G production, there is a case to be made for today being a golden age for supporting technology.

There is a strong wave of expertise and investment currently being poured into products offering novelty solutions for technology in O&G, which results in higher efficiency and a range of interesting applications surfacing all over the industry.

One of our recent favourites are the smart glasses that are currently being deployed by BP across their US onshore operations. The initiative is being realised through a partnership with Fieldbit, an Israeli technology company; together the two are making the communication between service centre staff, such as experts, and on-site engineers easier and quicker. The glasses, worn by the team of technicians on site, capture and transform the visual into a private, secure portal, where the other party can see the video in real time and help diagnose the problem more accurately. After this is done, the experts at the service centre can use augmented reality to super-impose visual instructions and useful data that helps the remote engineers work on the issue. After the event, all the material can be stored in a dedicated repository.

Before employing the smart glasses across their US sites at this width, BP conducted a limited trial in a number of locations: sites in Texas, Wyoming and New Mexico tested the technology for a few months before it was adopted elsewhere. The decisive factors were the improvement in safety and efficiency in the field; particularly the reduction in production losses, well downtime, and travel costs was impressive.

According to BP’s Chief Operating Officer Brian Pugh, the company is very excited to collaborate on this front: “This is the latest example of how BP’s U.S. business is leveraging technology to advance our Intelligent Operations operating model to improve the safety and reliability of our operations as well as to improve cost efficiency in a low commodity price environment.”

At Dashboard, we enjoy seeing the Big Six companies embrace the technological progress that the digital oilfield can offer when implemented correctly. As leaders of the industry it is important for them to help modernise the practise of oil production and we think smart glasses are an excellent example of the benefits technology can provide.