BP 2014 Annual Report Download - page 20

We aim to maintain a skilled workforce to deliver our
strategy and meet our commitments to investors,
partners and the wider world. We compete for the
best people within the energy sector and other
industries.
Our people are talented in a wide range of disciplines
– from geoscience, mechanical engineering and
research technology to government affairs, trading,
marketing, legal and others.
We have a bias towards building capability within the
organization, complemented by selective external
recruitment where necessary, and invest in all our
employees’ development to build a sustainable
talent pipeline.
Our approach to professional development and
training helps build individual capabilities, reducing a
potential skills gap. We believe our shared values help
everyone at BP to contribute to their full potential.
We use technology to find and produce more oil
and gas, improve our processes for conversion
into valuable products and develop lower-carbon
energy solutions.
We aim to build strategic relationships with
universities for research, recruitment, policy
insights and education. Our long-term research
programmes around the world are exploring
areas from reservoir fluid flow to novel lubricant
additives. For example through the BP
International Centre for Advanced Materials
almost 70 researchers are working on around 20
projects to advance the understanding and use
of materials across a variety of energy and
industrial applications.
The first priority for all our technology teams is
improving the safety and integrity of our
operations.
See bp.com/technology
1 2 Seismic imaging
We use our imaging expertise to increase the
productivity and quality of the data we capture
on land and offshore. We conducted one of our
largest-ever onshore seismic surveys in 2014
covering 2,800km2 at the Khazzan field in Oman.
4 Enhanced oil recovery (EOR)
BP delivers more light oil EOR production than
any other international oil company. In 2014 we
introduced the world’s first automated robot for
testing EOR technologies, shortening the time
we need to spend on development and trials
before bringing them to field.
5 Shipping efficiency
Our ‘virtual arrival’ system can reduce fuel
consumption and emissions by allowing vessels,
ports and other parties to work together and
agree an optimum arrival time for each vessel.
3 Production optimization
Our Field of the Future technologies provide
real-time information to help manage operational
risk, improve plant equipment reliability and
optimize production. In 2014 we established a
digital centre of expertise for technologies to
analyse data, improve decision making and
enhance efficiency.
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2
4
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Our distinctive capabilities
Advanced technology
Proven expertise
At our Wayne technology center in New Jersey
chemists research new formulations to improve
lubricant performance.
Graduate intake
Our global graduate and
postgraduate
programmes recruited
670 people in 2014.
Group leaders
Our group leaders have
an average of 20 years’
experience in BP.
Internal promotion
We promoted 4,880
employees including
524 group and senior
level leaders.
External hires
We hired 8,640 people
including 97 group and
senior level leaders.
Developing the talent pipeline
Employees
For more information about our
people and values see page 44.
Our upstream technology programmes include
advanced seismic imaging to help us find more
oil and gas and enhanced oil recovery to get
more from existing fields. New techniques are
improving the efficiency of unconventional oil
and gas production.
We focus our downstream technology
programmes on improving the performance of
our refineries and petrochemicals plants and on
creating high quality, energy efficient, cleaner
products.
We employ scientists and technologists at
seven major technology centres in the US, UK
and Germany. In 2014 we invested $663 million
in research and development (2013 $707 million,
2012 $674 million).
BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 201416