Shell develops digital talent and pioneers new virtual manufacturing technology

Shell’s Pulau Bukom manufacturing site, and the home of Singapore’s first refinery, will pilot a manufacturing site technology, named “Digital Twin”. Upon achieving full completion in 2024, the Digital Twin will be a complete virtual representation of the physical elements on site and be able to respond dynamically to conditions based on data from over 20 different technology platforms.

The power of the Digital Twin lies in its visual, data and analytics capabilities. When fully implemented, the manufacturing site will be safer, more competitive and innovative, delivering new levels of efficiency, safety standards and plant intelligence. Live information of the plant operations can be provided to engineers via augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), reducing the need to step into the plant. When troubleshooting an issue, various options can be tested in real-time on the virtual platform, before deciding on a solution. This improves operational efficiency, preventing downtime, reducing maintenance costs and allows effective real time collaboration between experts and operators. By 2025, all critical field operations at Pulau Bukom will be performed through tablets.

“We are committed to making our Singapore sites on Bukom and Jurong Island globally competitive by combining human capabilities with advanced digitalisation technologies, to truly transform the ways we work. The launch of the Digital Twin technology is a strong testimony of how we are implementing potentially ground-breaking solutions in a traditional environment to improve productivity and efficiency safely,” said Hugues Bourgogne, Vice President Manufacturing Singapore/Philippines and General Manager of Pulau Bukom Manufacturing site.

Pulau Bukom’s position as an integrated oil and petrochemicals hub in Asia Pacific, strong track record in piloting path breaking digitalisation projects and its long history, were reasons why it was selected to pioneer the Digital Twin. Large amounts of data from the 59-year-old site will be mapped into the Digital Twin’s processor for stronger machine-learning. A full rollout across the island is expected in four years, as the workforce capabilities and digital assets mature. This is expected to result in approximately 25% improvements in productivity, reliability and safety.

The site is also grooming a strong pool of technical talent to support this digital transformation. Since late 2019, about 140 employees from various teams on the Bukom manufacturing site have participated in hackathons and digital bootcamps, under various programmes to add digital capabilities and competence to the site. In the next two years, all employees at the Bukom manufacturing site, including management, engineers and technicians, will be trained and equipped to operate the asset of the future. The site is committed to investing over 6,000 training hours annually from 2021, on this digital drive.

“Shell Bukom’s digitalisation plans, anchored by the Digital Twin, is a shakeup of the plant. With the setup of a virtual plant through the Digital Twin, and by equipping staff on site with a tablet, we are creating a new culture of allowing work to be done remotely with the provision of complex data at their fingertips. This is an exciting time as we are not just building digital assets, but also a new digital culture. We are telling our staff to pursue their interest of coding applications to make their jobs easier, to think about becoming data scientists or software engineers, all while working in a manufacturing plant with our playground of data,” said Narayanan Valayaputtur, Projects and Engineering Manager.

This move is aligned with the Singapore government’s focus on Industry 4.0, a trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies which will see automation powered by data to perform everyday tasks.

“We are encouraged that Shell has taken this bold step of piloting the “Digital Twin” solution in Singapore, setting a strong example of how the Energy and Chemicals sector can adopt technology to move towards Industry 4.0 standards,” said Damian Chan, Executive Vice President, EDB. “Shell’s holistic approach of investing in digital processes, technologies and training to support the workforce is timely, especially with the acceleration of digitalisation in established industries today, and will help advance Singapore’s push for digital transformation across sectors.”

Download photos of the Digital Twin

Notes To Editors:

• The Pulau Bukom Manufacturing Site is an integrated refinery and chemicals site in Singapore and Shell’s largest petrochemical production and export centre in the Asia Pacific region. The facility can process up to 500,000 barrels of oil per day.
• Bukom supplies products to various Shell businesses in Singapore, including Retail, Commercial and Chemicals. Approximately 90 per cent of Bukom's products are exported to countries in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.
• The flexibility, scale and geographic spread of Shell’s refining portfolio enables its Trading and Supply business to efficiently supply both Shell’s own marketing businesses and external customers with high-quality oil products.
• Shell in Singapore has implemented digitalisation solutions such as drones, 3D printing and augmented reality at its manufacturing plants, including Shell Jurong Island. Digitalisation has also changed the way construction work is being done on site. Combined with the usage of 4D- and 5D-based construction planning, staff are now able to accurately predict constraints and monitor developments, resulting in time and manpower savings.
• Shell operates and has interests in 15 refineries, capable of processing nearly 2.5 million barrels of oil a day into high-quality fuels, specialty products and petrochemicals that help keep people and economies moving.

Enquiries:

Vanessa Ho
Ninemer Communications P L
vanessaho@ninemer.com

Hsu Lin
Ninemer Communications P L
hsulin@ninemer.com

Ca-Mie De Souza
General Manager, External Relations
Ca-Mie.DeSouza@shell.com

Cautionary Note

The companies in which Royal Dutch Shell plc directly and indirectly owns investments are separate legal entities. In this press release “Shell”, “Shell Group” and “Royal Dutch Shell” are sometimes used for convenience where references are made to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general. Likewise, the words “we”, “us” and “our” are also used to refer to Royal Dutch Shell plc and its subsidiaries in general or to those who work for them. These terms are also used where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular entity or entities. ‘‘Subsidiaries’’, “Shell subsidiaries” and “Shell companies” as used in this press release refer to entities over which Royal Dutch Shell plc either directly or indirectly has control. Entities and unincorporated arrangements over which Shell has joint control are generally referred to as “joint ventures” and “joint operations”, respectively. Entities over which Shell has significant influence but neither control nor joint control are referred to as “associates”. The term “Shell interest” is used for convenience to indicate the direct and/or indirect ownership interest held by Shell in an entity or unincorporated joint arrangement, after exclusion of all third-party interest.

This press release contains forward-looking statements (within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning the financial condition, results of operations and businesses of Royal Dutch Shell. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements of future expectations that are based on management’s current expectations and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements concerning the potential exposure of Royal Dutch Shell to market risks and statements expressing management’s expectations, beliefs, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are identified by their use of terms and phrases such as “aim”, “ambition”, ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘goals’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘objectives’’, ‘‘outlook’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘probably’’, ‘‘project’’, ‘‘risks’’, “schedule”, ‘‘seek’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘target’’, ‘‘will’’ and similar terms and phrases. There are a number of factors that could affect the future operations of Royal Dutch Shell and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements included in this press release, including (without limitation): (a) price fluctuations in crude oil and natural gas; (b) changes in demand for Shell’s products; (c) currency fluctuations; (d) drilling and production results; (e) reserves estimates; (f) loss of market share and industry competition; (g) environmental and physical risks; (h) risks associated with the identification of suitable potential acquisition properties and targets, and successful negotiation and completion of such transactions; (i) the risk of doing business in developing countries and countries subject to international sanctions; (j) legislative, fiscal and regulatory developments including regulatory measures addressing climate change; (k) economic and financial market conditions in various countries and regions; (l) political risks, including the risks of expropriation and renegotiation of the terms of contracts with governmental entities, delays or advancements in the approval of projects and delays in the reimbursement for shared costs; (m) risks associated with the impact of pandemics, such as the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak; and (n) changes in trading conditions. No assurance is provided that future dividend payments will match or exceed previous dividend payments. All forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional risk factors that may affect future results are contained in Royal Dutch Shell’s Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2020 (available at www.shell.com/investor and www.sec.gov). These risk factors also expressly qualify all forward-looking statements contained in this press release and should be considered by the reader. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of this press release, August 12, 2020. Neither Royal Dutch Shell plc nor any of its subsidiaries undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or other information. In light of these risks, results could differ materially from those stated, implied or inferred from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release.

We may have used certain terms, such as resources, in this press release that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) strictly prohibits us from including in our filings with the SEC. Investors are urged to consider closely the disclosure in our Form 20-F, File No 1-32575, available on the SEC website www.sec.gov.