Navigating digital transformation: How BW Energy grew 400% without adding IT headcount
In today's fast-paced energy industry, digitalization is necessary for companies like BW Energy to scale cost-effectively and be competitive. BW Energy moved its IT infrastructure from on-prem to the cloud and implemented Cegal Cetegra to create a solid platform for digital transformation and support agile operations.
BW Energy is a growth-focused exploration and production (E&P) company with a differentiated strategy targeting proven offshore oil and gas fields with significant upside potential to leverage in-house technical, operational, and basin expertise with repurposed infrastructure. Since its establishment in 2016, BW Energy has successfully implemented a unique, low-cost approach to developing oil and gas projects, generating significant value. The company is fast emerging as a powerful player in the energy sector.
Headquartered in Houston, Texas, BW Energy holds majority interests in three hydrocarbon licenses in Gabon, Brazil, and Namibia. The company is an affiliate of the BW Group, a leading global maritime company involved in shipping, floating infrastructure, deepwater oil & gas production, and new sustainable technologies with 12,000 employees worldwide. The group’s history goes back to the 1950s. We find BW Offshore, BW LNG, BW Dry Cargo, BW Solar, and Corvus Energy among the other companies where BW Group is a significant shareholder.
The IT foundation for robust growth
When BW Energy needed a technology partner that supported digital transformation, global expansion, and growth, they found Cegal. Jeffrey LaMotte, IT Manager at BW Energy, emphasizes: "We wanted a partner with global reach and an office in the US to avoid time zone challenges, combined with extensive experience in oil and gas."
Of the vendors we looked at, Cegal was the only one with geology and geoscientist staff. In addition, Cegal has also developed some of the geoscience software we rely on. Altogether, this was a big plus.
Jeffrey LaMotte, BW Energy
Digitalization is changing how we work, companies operate, and people collaborate. Today’s technology, such as desktop virtualization or cloud computing, represents precious allies in an increasingly digitalized world, helping overcome legacy systems integration issues or guaranteeing access to all relevant stakeholders anywhere, anytime. Therefore, digital transformation and digitalization are required to operate efficiently, be competitive, and be agile in today's rapidly changing energy industry.
BW Energy moved its IT infrastructure from on-prem to the cloud to create a solid platform for digital transformation and support agile operations. As part of the transition, BW Energy also implemented Cegal Cetegra.
Cetegra reinventing work for BW Energy
Cetegra is a virtual workspace reinventing how oil and gas experts work and collaborate. It gives energy companies access to all applications and data in a unique, collaborative, and flexible cloud-based solution. Cetegra delivers high-performance IT systems and solutions designed to tackle the challenges triggered by growing digitalization, such as data integration, data access, data security, and more.
Jeff Salinas, IT Services Manager at Cegal, says: “In oil and gas, especially in the E&P sector, a multitude of disconnected software is in use. Companies often have challenges with software integration. This makes work and collaboration less productive and halts innovations.”
Cetegra enables energy companies to consolidate data from various legacy systems in one centralized point of entry, granting anytime-anywhere access and providing an unrivaled user experience. It simplifies work and business processes for increased productivity and minimizes overhead costs.
Jeff Salinas, IT Services Manager at Cegal, says: With Cetegra, software setup, software procurement, and licensing are no longer an issue. The user easily finds the applications they need in a personal workspace, and the software is always updated, including the latest security patches.
The Cetegra workspace enhances collaboration, and staff can share data across the organization.
Jeff Salinas, Cegal
The vendor-neutral platform integrates with +3,000 applications
Cetegra is vendor-neutral, and the platform offers integration and interoperability with over 3,000 applications - of which 800 are industry-specific geoscience applications. Cetegra High-Performance Computing (HPC) is designed to support heavy workloads such as seismic processing or reservoir simulation.
One of the most significant advantages was moving from on-premises to the cloud with Cegal and Cetegra, which gave us the flexibility, agility, and scalability we needed.
Jeffrey LaMotte, BW Energy
Cetegra is not the only service Cegal has delivered. LaMotte highlights other parts of the delivery. BW Energy has a Service Desk with a local number and chat support. A cloud storage platform from Nasuni with a global VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) and storage coverage with backup and recovery is also integrated into the delivery. On-site IT support, IT services on two production rigs, and 24/7 database monitoring services on Oracle databases also apply.
Cetegra provides increased productivity
LaMotte adds: “To sum up, we have a lot of good Cegal people working on our technology solutions.”
Today, Cegal handles all BW Energy IT, including desktops and IT infrastructure, and monitors BW Energy's cloud environment on Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. Utilizing Cetegra, the cloud, and with the help of Cegal, BW Energy can operate its global E&P operations with a competent and effective IT staff of only 4 to 5 persons responsible for guiding all technical needs. The IT staff points out the direction, and Cegal does almost all the practical work. The partnership with Cegal has been crucial as the energy company aims to scale its business fast. BW Energy has grown from 70 to 300 employees with minimal IT staff in the past two years.
The digitalization and efficiency provided by Cetegra fuel BW Energy’s competitive advantage and growth by impressive numbers:
Up to 30%
Increased productivity: time gained per full-time employee
Up to 65%
Cost-efficient: reduction in application management costs
At least 70%
Improved sustainability: reduction in CO2 emissions
Cegal Cetegra provides higher cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is increasingly critical and at the forefront of every C-level executive's mind in the energy industry. The necessity of having a resilient IT infrastructure is becoming inevitable. Cetegra helps BW Energy protect sensitive data and secure remote locations.
Jefferey LaMotte at BW Energy outlines the company’s plans for the future. BW Energy wants to adopt a new service from Nasuni, an enhancement to the services and access anywhere. BW Energy will also look into Cegal’s other industry solutions, such as the Blueback software portfolio.
We will also say Cegal has a lot of good things to offer. We want to give our users access to these solutions. We are growing a lot and want Cegal to grow with us.
The people, especially the local Cegal staff in Houston, made a huge difference when we implemented Cetegra and moved to the cloud.
Jeffrey LaMotte, BW Energy
Jeffrey LaMotte concludes: "This has led to excellent resolution times, and we are closely collaborating to improve our technology platform significantly. We have an excellent partnership with Cegal."
