Emerson helps BP Alaska enhance process safety with wireless pressure gauges

August 22, 2019 -- The Alaska Oil and Gas Association has awarded the “Alaska Oil & Gas Project of the Year for Environmental Stewardship and Innovation” to BP Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay Unit Well Operating Limits Project. The three-year program began in 2016 and involved the field-wide installation of Emerson’s Rosemount Wireless Pressure Gauges at the Prudhoe Bay field helping transform how the wells are monitored. 

Rosemount Wireless Pressure Gauges work to contribute to decreased personnel and environmental risk by providing visibility into well integrity without the need to physically enter the well, protecting personnel from potentially hazardous conditions. Additionally, automated real-time data and process insight provide notification of well anomalies, reducing the risk of an event.

The Alaska Oil & Gas Project of the Year for Environmental Stewardship and Innovation honors an Alaska project that demonstrates superior environmental stewardship in design, construction, or operation, and/or an innovative approach that sets a new standard for industry design, construction, or operation in Alaska.

Working closely with Emerson and PCE Pacific, Inc., BP installed more than 3,500 Rosemount Wireless Pressure Gauges on upstream wellheads at Prudhoe Bay for year-round remote pressure monitoring. Rosemount gauges were selected because of their reliability, wireless communication capabilities, local display and installation.

The Rosemount gauges replaced existing mechanical pressure gauges that required personnel to perform manual readings on more than 1,700 wells under potentially hazardous conditions due to the extreme weather in Prudhoe Bay, which at times can reach 50 degrees below zero Celsius.

The automated wireless data provided by Rosemount Wireless Pressure Gauges offers updates at a rate of once per minute, as opposed to the once per day frequency of the mechanical gauges. In addition, both data quality and read frequency increased over the previous manual methods.

BP and Emerson continue to work together on additional opportunities to increase the efficiency of BP Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay Unit. 

About Emerson

Emerson is a global technology and engineering company providing innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial, and residential markets. The Emerson Automation Solutions business helps process, hybrid, and discrete manufacturers maximize production, protect personnel and the environment.

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