Andrea Della Mattea (Microsoft)
Petronas, Malaysia’s state-owned oil and gas company, has undertaken an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven overhaul, drawing upon Microsoft Azure, enterprise AI software platform vendor C3 AI and industrial services provider Baker Hughes.
The program comes after C3 AI and Baker Hughes struck an AI collaboration agreement with the Malaysian energy giant to apply the vendors’ jointly developed BakerHughesC3.ai (BHC3) technology across Petronas’ global strategic digital transformation programs.
BHC3 develops and sells a range of AI-powered software for the oil and gas industry. The vendors’ joint BHC3 AI Suite software uses a model-driven architecture to accelerate delivery and reduce the complexities of developing enterprise-scale AI applications for the energy sector.
The BHC3 Reliability software offering, the solution Petronas has taken on, provides reliability engineers, process engineers and maintenance managers with AI-enabled insights to address process and equipment performance risks.
“For the energy industry, this is a time of significant transformation,” Microsoft Asia Pacific president Andrea Della Mattea said. “Benefitting from the power of the cloud and AI solutions, Baker Hughes, C3 AI and Petronas are helping to increase worker safety, reduce emissions through equipment maintenance and are taking an important step forward in the transition of the energy industry.”
Utilising Microsoft Azure, Petronas is deploying the BHC3 Reliability application, in collaboration with C3 AI and Baker Hughes, in a bid to improve its maintenance programs for gas turbines and, in a separate project, improve the reliability of control valves by detecting anomalous conditions, preventing downtime.
It is hoped the adoption of AI technology as part of Pentronas’ overall program for improved oil and gas productivity, asset integrity and safety will support the company’s commitment to provide clean, efficient energy solutions by “harnessing the power of technology”.
“Petronas addresses the energy demands of today by leveraging the power of digital as an accelerator, technology as a differentiator, and data as an asset," Petronas project delivery and technology senior vice president Samsudin Miskon said.
“Petronas is committed to accelerated digital transformation that delivers productivity, efficiency, visibility, safety and performance. The predictive intelligence of AI is critical to meeting these needs, and this is only possible with AI that drives outcomes at pace and scale,” he added.
According to Uwem Ukpong, executive vice president of regions, alliances and enterprise sales at Baker Hughes, the program with Petronas continues the existing relationship between Baker Hughes and the oil and gas company to drive productivity and efficiency.
“AI will play a critical role in digital transformation programs that bridge today’s demand for energy with tomorrow’s energy transition. We are thrilled to work with Petronas as it leads in digital transformation and deploys the full power of enterprise AI,” he said.
In November 2019 Baker Hughes, C3 A and Microsoft announced an alliance to bring the vendors' enterprise AI solutions for the energy industry to Microsoft Azure.
It was claimed at the time that the alliance would enable customers to streamline the adoption of scalable AI solutions for the energy industry that help promote safety, reliability, and sustainability.
