BP – Rumaila

Discovered in 1953, the supergiant oilfield of Rumaila remains one of Iraq’s most significant natural assets but decades of conflict have left their mark on the oil-rich southern region of the country. To help rebuild the region and the rest of Iraq after the war years, it was decided to revive and radically increase production from the country’s main oilfields. In January 2008, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced the first Iraqi Petroleum Licensing Round.

The bid round resulted in just one license being awarded – to BP and its partner PetroChina. The partners teamed up with Iraq’s South Oil Company (SOC) and State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) to breathe new life into the Rumaila field, 50 kilometres (30 miles) to the west of Basra. Therefore, in 2009, BP became the first international oil company to return to Iraq after a period of 35 years.

BP, who are widening their use of electronic purchasing, employed a reverse auctioning portal allowing suppliers to bid for an instrumentation package for the Rumaila Water Injection Manifold. ABLE Instruments & Controls Ltd, who themselves recognise that the rapidly developing digital economy is the single most important driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth, were successful in winning the package award. ABLE are embracing new digital trends such as a dedicated ecommerce website, cloud computing, mobile web services and social media to radically change their business landscape, spurring innovation in business models, business networking, knowledge transfer and access to international markets.

BP has saved millions of pounds on its £8.5bn annual procurement budget by using e-auction technology. The technology reduces bureaucracy and speeds up the procurement process.