BP’s US Onshore Business Unit, built largely through mergers and acquisitions, had seven different production/operations data capture and storage systems. Then the business unit developed a new web-based real-time data monitoring and reporting tool that would be far more effective than the multiple applications currently in use.
Problem
The business unit wanted to replace existing software tools. However, to swap them out for the new application would require them to rewrite every one of the custom, point-to-point connections to multiple different data capture systems, and create new interfaces where they did not yet exist, a potentially massive IT effort.
Solution
BP had launched the Real-Time Architecture Project (RTAP) in March 2003, utilizing web services to create highly flexible interfaces based on established and emerging internet standards. The RTAP prototype was pilot-tested in the US Onshore Business Unit in late 2003-early 2004 to connect a new real-time software application with multiple legacy data sources. Only one simple web service interface had to be (re)used to connect to the various date-sources rather than creating multiple one-off, point-to-point interfaces.
Results
Data access was faster. A greater range of technical users could access the software from any geographic location. The lifespan of legacy data systems was extended, preserving investments of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars. Future software upgrades will require less time. Deployment of the RTAP solution in subsequent BP assets reduced the cost of implementation by c. 25% per asset. Writing a new RTAP interface took only days vs. weeks or months to create custom interfaces in the past. Reuse of the same interface in another asset took only hours to implement. By the end of 2006, some 22 BP assets had implemented RTAP.
For more details, see Foreman, R.D., Gregovic, R.M., and Forrester, D., “Web Service Standards Provide Access to Real-Time E&P Operations Data,” OGJ, Jan. 2, 2006.