OPEX SIGNS MULTI-ASSET CONTRACT WITH NEW CUSTOMER

As OPEX continues to grow we are delighted to announce that we have entered into a multi-asset contract with another new customer in the UKCS. Under the agreement, our X-PAS™ Smart Production service will be rolled out to production critical systems across the customer’s legacy assets.

Over the next four weeks our data scientists will work with the operator’s existing operational data to build a number of predictive models to allow our team to accurately predict the future performance and behaviour of the selected systems.

Data analysis will begin during October when the X-PAS™ team will work alongside the operator’s on and offshore teams on a continuous basis to help them make the right interventions at the right time to avoid system trips and production losses.

Find out more about the X-PAS™ Smart Production service HERE.

£1.5BN UKCS SAVINGS AVAILABLE ACCORDING TO OGA/OGTC

An oil and gas industry study has found that adopting data analytics and digital technologies for asset maintenance and operations could deliver savings of £1.5 billion annually to the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) through increased production and lower maintenance costs.

The joint study was carried out by the UK oil and gas industry’s Technology Leadership Board, the Oil & Gas Technology Centre and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA).

According to the new study, the failure of offshore equipment, such as gas compression, oil export, power and water injection systems, resulted in lost production of around 110 million barrels of oil equivalent in the North Sea in 2017.

The study investigated how data from topsides production and operations equipment is currently being used and can help sustainably improve production efficiency and maintenance planning, reducing operational costs.

The report concluded that adopting data analytics and digital technologies across the basin could deliver a 25% improvement in the reliability of critical equipment and systems and a 15-20% reduction in overall maintenance spend, resulting in an estimated £1.5 billion of value to the UKCS per year.

The full report can be downloaded HERE.

OPEX SHORTLISTED FOR GLOBAL INNOVATION AWARD

We are delighted to announce that our X-PAS™ Predictive Analysis Service has been shortlisted as a finalist in the Innovative Technology category at this year’s Energy Institute Awards.

The EI Awards showcase organisations, projects and individuals of excellence in the energy sector. More than 120 entries were submitted from 29 countries across the globe, and we look forward to attending the awards ceremony alongside a number of our customers who are finalists in other categories.

The awards ceremony will take place in London on 22nd November 2018.  You can find out more about the EI awards here.

MEET THE X-PAS™ TEAM AT ENGENIOUS

OPEX will be attending the first ever ENGenious exhibition in Aberdeen in September to showcase our range of X-PAS™ predictive analysis services.

• Tuesday 4th-Thursday 6th September 2018

• Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre

• OPEX Group - Stand B40

The event, which is hosted by the organisers of Offshore Europe, focuses on cutting edge technologies that will help oil and gas businesses thrive in a changing digital landscape. 

You can attend the exhibition for free by registering on the ENGenious website here.

Jill Tough, VP of Marketing, explains more about the event; "ENGenious is all about innovation and digital transformation so it was an easy decision for us to take part.

"Our team will be on hand to showcase our range of X-PAS™ predictive analysis services and discuss how we are helping our customers to do even more with their data. 

"We will also be launching our brand new X-PAS™ Smart Behaviours service which combines data science, predictive technology and psychology to improve offshore safety."

We hope to meet you at the event!

IMPROVING OFFSHORE SAFETY BY MANAGING HUMAN RISK

We are delighted to be working alongside Premier Oil and the Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) on a ground-breaking new project to address a key challenge facing our industry; how to identify, measure and manage the risks posed by human behaviours to impact safe and predictable offshore operations.

The project, which is one of the first to be awarded by the OGTC’s Digital Solutions Centre, will focus on combining predictive technology and data science with psychology to map an organisation’s ‘behavioural DNA’. 

By working with leading behavioural psychologists, we have devised a new diagnostic service that provides key insights into the behavioural profile of individuals; helping organisations to gain a clear picture of the levels of behavioural risk across their workforce and operations.

Jamie Bennett, CEO of OPEX Group, explains more about the project; “Despite decades of training programmes, tightening of procedures and investment in safety cultures, the task of proactively managing human risk remains one of the greatest challenges facing the oil and gas industry today.  Research shows that human errors contribute to as many as 90% of incidents.

“Current approaches to understand safety behaviours rely on surveys that give us an insight into what employees think and feel.  The piece of the puzzle that is missing - a blindspot - is an understanding of how these individuals are going to act and behave - and the impact those behaviours will have on offshore operations.

“Through this project we will use predictive technologies and data science to analyse behavioural insights gained from core crews and correlate it to vast amounts of historic incident data from Premier’s offshore assets. 

“Our aim is to work alongside Premier to greatly strengthen the safety and predictability of their offshore operations in what has previously been a difficult area to quantify in the oil and gas industry.”

Stephen Ashley, Digital Transformation Solution Centre Manager for the Oil & Gas Technology Centre, said: “Advances in digital technology present a significant opportunity to improve the safety of operations offshore.

"We’ve seen predictive analytics and data science deliver improvements in production and efficiency, and we want to achieve even greater gains for safety. We look forward to working with OPEX and Premier on this exciting project.”

SHADOW SECRETARY FOR BUSINESS AND ENERGY VISITS OPEX

We were delighted to welcome Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Secretary for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to OPEX today (Friday 18th May 2018).

Along with North East MSP Lewis Macdonald, the Shadow Secretary met with Deirdre Michie, CEO of Oil & Gas UK, and a number of business leaders to learn more about the current and future focus for the oil & gas sector.  During the visit our data scientists demonstrated how the X-PAS™ service is supporting operators to avoid production losses and reduce maintenance costs.

Deirdre Michie, CEO of Oil & Gas UK, commented; “The UK offshore oil and gas sector is an industrial success story founded on technological pioneers such as OPEX Group.

“It is important that we continue to support our highly-skilled supply chain, which serves a critical role in maximising recovery from the basin and boosting our global reputation.”

Chris Ayres, Chief Operating Officer at OPEX Group, said; “It was a pleasure to welcome Rebecca Long-Bailey and the team from Oil & Gas UK.  By showcasing our X-PAS™ predictive analysis service we highlighted the vital role that new technologies play in helping to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and maximise recovery from the basin.

“It’s crucial that we create an environment where technology companies can thrive and continue to develop solutions to the challenges facing our industry.”

WORK STARTS WITH 4 NEW X-PAS™ CUSTOMERS

During April we started work with 4 new oil and gas operators to support them with a variety of operational challenges through our X-PAS™ Predictive Analysis Service.  

Euan Macalister, VP Business Development at OPEX, commented; “As the focus on digitally enabled operations and maintenance continues to gain momentum within the industry, we have seen a significant increase in the number of X-PAS™ projects kicking off.

“As our customer portfolio continues to grow, so does our team.  We’ve welcomed several new faces to the company to help us further strengthen our data science and multi-discipline engineering support teams.

“The X-PAS™ service is well positioned as an industry standard service offering, supporting the industry in its drive to maximise economic recovery and help operators to reduce their lifting costs, eliminate production losses and cut maintenance costs.”

NEW FACES AT OPEX

As OPEX continues to grow, we have welcomed a number of new employees to the business in recent months.

We are delighted to welcome Euan Bathgate as VP Engineering Support.  In addition to his significant experience of rotating equipment, Euan will be responsible for ensuring that the X-PAS™ Service is supported by the highest standards of engineering expertise.

The X-PAS™ data science team continues to grow with the addition of Matej Svoboda and Omer Panni, who together bring a wealth of experience in the application of data science and machine learning.  Our multi-discipline engineering team has been further strengthened by Praveen Manocha in the role of Principal Engineer and Raj Misra as Process Technical Authority.

Euan Macalister joined OPEX at the start of the year as VP Business Development and is focused on ensuring we continue to meet the needs of our existing customers whilst growing our customer portfolio in the UKCS and globally.  

And finally, in support of our finance and HR functions we also welcome Ria Paterson to the team as Business Support Administrator.

As OPEX continues to grow we are always on the lookout for talented individuals who strive to be the best in their field.  If you share our passion for transforming the oil and gas industry through digitally-enabled operations and maintenance, get in touch.

A DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH TO ASSET DILIGENCE

OPEX is working with the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) on a second directed project to develop a new data-driven assurance service for operators acquiring legacy assets. 

By applying advanced data science techniques, the new service will provide operators with a clear picture of the health, condition and level of operational risk within the topside facilities of newly acquired assets, helping to improve due diligence and create an operational performance baseline.

Jamie Bennett, CEO of OPEX commented; “A challenge for any operator acquiring legacy assets is developing an understanding of what they are buying in terms of the health, condition and level of operational risk within the topside facilities.  

“Existing due diligence exercises typically only evaluate inventory levels and often require the new owners to conduct complete overhauls of their new facilities at considerable expense.  This can lead to extensive periods of production downtime and environmental, business and regulatory risk.

“We look forward to working with the OGTC Digital Solutions Centre on this project.”

OPEX SECURES 3-YEAR CONTRACT ACROSS MULTIPLE ASSETS WITH NEW CUSTOMER

It’s been a busy start to the year for OPEX and we are delighted to announce we will be working in close collaboration with another new customer to maximise production and improve operational performance across 4 of their offshore assets.

Following the recent 3-year contract award, the X-PAS™ service will be applied to multiple critical systems.  Using data science and predictive technologies, our X-PAS™ team will analyse tens of thousands of data relationships daily to provide a unique view of how these critical systems are performing. 

Any emerging threats and vulnerabilities will be escalated to our customer, so they can make data-driven decisions to avoid outages and maximise production uptime.