Weatherford International plc has announced that it has signed a Joint Initiative Agreement (JIA) with IBM to collaborate on the development of new products and services for oil and gas producers that leverage IBM advanced analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities on the IBM Cloud and further strengthen Weatherford’s industry-leading production optimisation technologies.

Through the joint initiative Weatherford and IBM will develop new analytics solutions, all available via IBM Cloud, that are based on Weatherford’s extensive production optimisation and engineering software platform, its supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and its sensors and controllers.

The jointly-developed solutions will be part of the Company’s new Reservoir Solutions global business unit, which was launched in early 2016 and is dedicated to providing integrated offerings that help its clients lower their operating costs and increase production.

“As part of our commitment to helping operators get more out of their assets, Weatherford is expanding on our existing, industry-leading offerings with world-class analytics software and IoT infrastructure,” says Oscar Rivera, Vice President of Reservoir Solutions. “This unprecedented stack of integrated technologies has the potential to revolutionise production optimisation and places Weatherford in the best position to address the challenges oil and gas producers face.”

“As oil and gas producers look for more cost-effective solutions, there is an increasing need for more advanced analytics that enable better decision making,” says John Brantley, Global General Manager for the Chemicals and Petroleum Industries, IBM. “The combination of Weatherford’s engineering software and IBM’s data analytics software in IBM’s cloud will enable the next evolution of production optimisation.”

Tags: IBM, Weather ford