Abstract

BP is committed to driving technological excellence, and as a company we believe that technology is central to BP’s reputation and competitive advantage in the short, medium and long term. We lead the field in a series of specialist energy technologies – these include seismic imaging, and enhanced oil recovery, in the upstream and more fuel efficiency in the downstream. To maintain this leading edge we invest over £130m annually on research and development through UK based institutions, or around 35% of our total R&D spend. As well as our own research centres, we also invest in programmes with UK universities and government initiatives. For example the BP Institute was established as an interdisciplinary research institute at Cambridge University over a decade ago. The BPI ’s research has touched on everything from oil recovery to areas such as geological storage of carbon dioxide, building ventilation and ocean currents. Our long history of developing technology for deployment across the world is a fundamental part of who we are and gives us a strong platform to help meet future energy demand. With this large investment in developing and deploying technology it is important that we use a set of planning, project, and portfolio management processes to ensure that portfolio management decisions, prioritisation and execution are carried out in a consistent, meaningful, and equitable way to maximise business value and manage risk – This, in essence, is the process of Technology