Shell shakes hands with three players to boost offshore unit safety

August 18, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Shell Brasil, a subsidiary of the UK-headquartered energy giant Shell, has joined forces with MODEC Brasil, an affiliate of Japan’s MODEC, the firm’s digital services spin-off, and Unicamp, to employ artificial intelligence to improve the safety performance of offshore units.

The companies’ partnership aims to develop a methodology for monitoring risks and preventing operational failures in offshore units using artificial intelligence, based on Shape Reef, a tool for operational process safety designed by Shape Digital.

Olivier Wambersie, Director of Technology and Innovation at Shell Brasil, remarked: “Safety is a non-negotiable asset for Shell Brasil. Investing in technology and innovation to improve risk management in offshore units is a central part of our operational excellence strategy.

“Partnerships like this allow us to anticipate failures, reduce uncertainties and increase the protection of people and the environment. This is how we move forward responsibly and ensure increasingly safe operations.”

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By providing real-time visualization, supporting decision-making, and contributing to safer operations, the tool will be enhanced to identify the degradation of safety barriers in offshore units, systems, procedures, and equipment designed to prevent, control, or mitigate operational risks.

Felipe Baldissera, CEO of Shape Digital, commented: “We are going to develop and test new methods for managing safety barriers on offshore units, making the tool even more robust. This project is completely in line with our vision and strategy: to generate more and more intelligence based on data and AI, supporting decision-making towards operational excellence.”

Financed with funds from the ANP’s RD&I clause, the project will implement, test, and improve risk estimation approaches using data-based techniques for two contexts, covering degradation of safety barriers and gas leak scenarios, over 36 months. MODEC will provide operational expertise from its FPSOs in Brazil to support the development of the tool.

Leonardo Santoro, MODEC Brasil’s Technical Management Manager, noted: “The initiative reinforces MODEC’s commitment to continuous innovation and the adoption of technologies that strengthen people’s safety and the operational excellence of offshore units.

“That’s why we’re committed to sharing our expertise, providing relevant technical data and all the intellectual capital needed to drive solutions that contribute to safer and more efficient operations.”

The technology under development, which is said to have originated from a previous project carried out at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) under the coordination of Professor Sávio Viana, entailed the creation and registration of two computer programs in the first stage, which gave rise to innovative products: the Fuzzy BowTie and the Artificial Neural Network for Leak Detection.

Within Phase II, again under the coordination of Prof. Vianna from Unicamp, the project will combine computational fluid dynamics data and real field data to investigate and apply new artificial intelligence models, raising the level of technological maturity of the solution. Once these technologies are validated, Shape Reef will have the capacity to identify and support risk mitigation, increasing coverage and precision.

This solution, already in operation on offshore units in Brazil, Mexico, and Africa, can be applied to various industrial plants in the oil and gas segment. Shape Digital also sells Shape Lighthouse, described as intelligent asset management software, and Shape Aura, which is used for energy efficiency and reducing GHG emissions.