Oil and gas fields typically produce thousands of barrels a day. Even modest improvements to production can make a meaningful impact.
This is where technology comes in. New tools have played a role in helping to increase, on average, by around 2% every year for the last five years, according to our full year 2025 results – that’s around 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day. And these tools have also assisted with protecting, on average, around 4% more production from going offline.
“Years of focused technology integration is now paying off, helping to lift production and set new performance records in parts of the business,” says Herlinde Mannaerts-Drew, SVP, upstream research and development.
Here’s how technology – including AI, advanced analytics and robotics – is helping our oil and gas production teams get more from our fields.
Seeing underground more clearly
The better we can see and understand the layers of rock beneath the surface, the more accurately we can find and .
Seismic imaging has long been a foundation of this, and advances – including 4D seismic imaging – are now helping teams get clearer pictures of oil and gas reservoirs.
Another way we get a detailed understanding of the subsurface is by studying the makeup of the solid rock where the oil and gas is found to see how they flow through it.
In the past, laboratory teams would spend many months on physical experiments to characterize how oil and gas flow through the rock. Our subsurface teams can now use digital rocks – virtual models of scanned reservoir rock samples – to run experiments in days (that in the past could take months) to help with this analysis.
“When we have higher confidence in what’s under the ground, we can work to bring production online safer and more quickly,” says Ricky Burns, transformation and technology manager in the Gulf of America.
Seeing inside our wells and equipment
Getting the most out of the oil and gas fields where we work takes a strong understanding of what’s happening inside every well, every pipeline and every system.
Tools like bp’s Optimization Genie give our engineers suggestions on how to run our systems better. It analyses in real-time the data coming from our production facilities and then recommends specific changes, such as adjusting flow rates or valve settings to optimize production across a field, for our engineers to take into consideration.
Data-assisted decision-making is also changing how we restart production after shutdowns, which is not as simple as just flipping a switch. bp’s Well Startup Tool models scenarios and suggests options to enhance safety and promote speedier turnaround for bringing wells back online, helping us to reduce the time production is idle and get it back to peak sooner.
Offshore, teams in the Gulf of America are using fibre optic sensors that run the length of the well. This is helping them understand exactly where oil, gas and water flow in real time – which assists with fine-tuning production on the spot and bringing in more oil and gas.
“Better insights lead to better judgement and the potential to produce more barrels,” says Jean-Charles Dumenil, who leads production technology delivery at bp.
Seeing potential issues sooner
When a single piece of equipment fails on an offshore platform, it can affect production across the whole asset. That’s why some of our most valuable technologies are those that help avoid interruptions – and potentially hundreds or thousands of barrels of production being lost.
Across bp’s oil and gas operations, specialist monitoring teams track subtle changes in pressure, flow and equipment behaviour in real time. When early warning signs appear, they can act before a small issue escalates and affects production.
But not every inspection can be done from a control room. Increasingly, drones and robots are being deployed to assist us with our inspection and monitoring of our operations — both on land and at sea.
In the Gulf of America, for example, teams are using shoebox-sized robots to help with inspections of underwater sections of our platforms, reducing the need to send people into complex situations. These remotely operated vessels can navigate tight spaces, capture detailed imagery and even remove marine growth that can interfere with operations.
Over the next four years, this programme is expected to save millions in maintenance costs.
Smarter inspections
Similar tools are also in use on bp platforms in the Gulf of American as well as in Azerbaijan, where drones are used to help inspect offshore platforms and storage tanks for wear. In Azerbaijan we’ve also introduced task-based robots to help carry out certain routine and ad hoc inspections across live operations.
What’s more, the team there has built an integrated digital twin — a virtual replica — of all nine offshore platforms in the Caspian. Engineers use it to simulate scenarios and assist them in planning maintenance remotely, and these “twins” are in use in other regions as well.
The system has worked so well, teams are now planning to include the onshore Sangachal Terminal – where production from the offshore platforms flows – into this integrated programme, in order to help give them a clearer view of the whole system.
Meanwhile, if an issue in our production system does arise, we have a tool that helps investigate so we can analyse what happened and learn for the future.
For Marianna Kerimova, transformation and technology manager in Azerbaijan, the purpose of technology is simple: “It delivers its greatest value when it keeps people safe, removes complexity and helps teams make better decisions.”
