Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL), an Indian oil and gas company, has selected Accenture for the digital transformation of its sales and distribution network.

Accenture said that it will leverage its capabilities in data, cloud technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI) for building, designing, and implementation of a digital platform, known as IRIS.

Arun Kumar Singh – director (marketing and refineries) of BPCL said: “Digital transformation opens up new opportunities for the oil and gas industry. As an organization passionate about embracing change and leading the charge, we look forward to leveraging technology to unlock tremendous value, sustainable growth, and improved efficiency.”

According to Accenture, the IRIS platform will integrate real-time data from the countrywide network of BPCL, covering over 18,000 fuel retail outlets, 75 oil installations and depots, 25,000 tank trucks, 52 liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plants, and 250 additional industrial and commercial locations, for providing a consolidated view of its operations.

The IRIS platform, which will be driven by AI and machine learning technologies-based analytics, will subsequently trigger automated alerts and actions such as rapid response to failures of equipment or hazardous situations.

Furthermore, the IRIS platform will help BPCL’s 100,000 plus employees across India in making quicker and more accurate decisions, including preventative maintenance. Accenture claims that this could help boost sales at fuel retail outlets by minimizing downtime of infrastructure and making sure that the fuel quality is consistent, apart from enhancing the experience for customers.

Accenture said that the new platform can accept over three million inputs per second from cameras, automated sensors, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices installed at all key locations. It can also track performance based on critical parameters like fuel stock, safety, compliance, health of equipment, apart from improving asset uptime.

Piyush N. Singh – India market unit lead at Accenture said: “The future will belong to companies that purposefully combine advanced digital technologies with human skills and creativity.

“We believe our industry expertise and extensive digital capabilities can help BPCL drive the next wave of growth and gain a distinct advantage in the market. The powerful combination of human and applied intelligence will facilitate transformative change to ensure BPCL’s operations are safer, more secure and more efficient.”

  Accenture, artificial intelligence, Arun Kumar Singh, Bharat Petroleum, BPCL, India, machine learning, Piyush N. Singh