Baker Hughes, KBC Form Partnership

Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) has announced a preferred partnership with KBC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokogawa, to provide a combination of process simulation, asset performance management and operational software solutions to the oil and gas industry.

The partnership aims to extend KBC’s Petro-SIM process simulation into fullstream applications in oil and gas by leveraging GE’s Predix IIoT platform. Total asset, operator and business connectivity is the goal.

“This partnership showcases our commitment to break down data “silos”, and is an ideal example of the convergence of process and operational thinking,” said Matthias Heilmann, Chief Digital Officer of BHGE. “For the first time, oil and gas customers can build a digital twin of a plant, refinery or rig, that incorporates end-to-end process and operational analytics and machine learning. With Petro-SIM providing simulation technology to our fullstream portfolio, this best-in-class solution will bring us into a new era of operational improvement.” 

By combining KBC’s Petro-SIM with Asset Performance Management from GE (see COMPRESSORtech² March 2017) and BHGE analytics and digital twins, it will be possible to provide complete real-time congruence between digital information and the physical world. Entire plant systems and the individual equipment and processes therein will be continually monitored against predicted outcomes so adjustments can be made for peak efficiency, and machine histories will also allow for optimized predictive maintenance and troubleshooting.