BP 2015 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 and
promoting from within the organization and
complement this with selective external recruitment.
We invest in our employees’ development to build
enduring capability for the future.
Our approach to professional development and
training helps build individual capabilities. We
believe our shared values help everyone at BP to
contribute to their full potential.
We select and develop the technologies that can
best help us manage risk and grow value for our
businesses. Our first priority is to enhance the
safety and reliability of our operations. Beyond
that we aim to build and maintain leadership
positions in selected technologies.
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. Our downstream
technology programmes are designed to
improve the performance of our refineries
and petrochemicals plants and create high-
quality, energy-efficient products.
See bp.com/technology
1 2 Seismic imaging
Our Independent Simultaneous Source (ISS)
technology makes large-scale 3D seismic
surveys faster and reduces cost by using
multiple surveying sources and receivers at
the same time. Our 2015 ISS survey at
Prudhoe Bay in Alaska delivered a 10-fold
increase in productivity, meaning we could
acquire higher-quality images in just one
winter season.
3 Production optimization
We began to deploy a new automated well
choke control system as part of our Field of the
Future technology suite in Azerbaijan in 2015.
Sand can cause wells to fail, but this system is
helping us manage well start-up and unsteady
flow during operations, contributing to improved
operational efficiency and production rates.
Our distinctive capabilities
Advanced technology
Proven expertise
High-speed graphics workstations in our Sunbury
office use state-of-the-art software and projection
equipment to create a 3D virtual world.
Employees
For more information about our
people see page 49.
We employ scientists and technologists at
seven major technology centres in the US,
UK and Germany. BP and its subsidiaries hold
more than 4,500 granted patents and pending
patent applications throughout the world. In
2015 we invested $418 million in research
and development (2014: $663 million, 2013
$707 million).
We partner 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 and lower-
carbon energy sources. For example research
at the BP International Centre for Advanced
Materials has led to its first patent application on
a strong steel alloy that resists becoming brittle
and is less likely to crack. This has the potential
to enhance the reliability of our equipment.
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3
Graduate intake
Our global graduate and
postgraduate programmes
recruited 298 people in 2015.
Group leaders
Our group leaders have
an average of 21 years’
experience in BP.
Internal promotion
We promoted 4,729
employees including
476 to senior level and
group leader roles.
External hires
We hired 5,303 people
including 53 to senior level
and group leader roles.
Developing the talent pipeline
BP Annual Report and Form 20-F 201516