TLDR: SBM Offshore has announced strategic digital alliances with SLB and Cognite to enhance the operational performance, efficiency, and safety of its floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) systems. These partnerships will leverage AI and data platforms to create a unified digital ecosystem, focusing on predictive maintenance, real-time insights, and cost optimization across its global and Brazilian fleets.
SBM Offshore, a global leader in floating production solutions, has unveiled significant advancements in its digital strategy through new and accelerated partnerships with technology giants SLB and Cognite. These collaborations, announced on October 3, 2025, are set to create an AI-powered digital ecosystem aimed at optimizing the performance and lifecycle management of SBM Offshore’s Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading (FPSO) systems.
Exclusive Digital Alliance with SLB
SBM Offshore and SLB have established an exclusive digital alliance to transform the performance of offshore production systems. This partnership will integrate SBM Offshore’s extensive operational workflows, data, and lifecycle expertise with SLB’s advanced digital technologies. Key components of this integration include SLB’s OptiSite solutions, which are powered by Cognite Data Fusion® as part of SLB’s Lumi™ data and AI platform. The goal is to create a comprehensive digital ecosystem that supports FPSO digital asset management, leading to improved uptime performance and reduced total costs of ownership for offshore operators.
Olivier Icyk, SBM Offshore’s Chief Business Officer, emphasized the strategic importance of this alliance, stating, “Together with SLB, we combine complementary industry-leading expertise, experience, data-driven work processes and proven services and technologies which will enhance further full field optimization, thanks to this unique vertical integration from reservoir to FPSO.” This integration is expected to empower engineering, operations, and maintenance teams to proactively identify and resolve emerging challenges before they escalate, utilizing real-time, contextualized insights from the entire asset infrastructure, including subsea wells, risers, flowlines, and topside systems.
Accelerated Partnership with Cognite
Building on an 18-month foundation, SBM Offshore is accelerating its strategic collaboration with Cognite, a global leader in Industrial AI. This initiative involves the deployment of Cognite’s industrial AI and data platform, Cognite Data Fusion®, across SBM Offshore’s entire Brazilian FPSO fleet. The objective is to unify and standardize fragmented datasets from across the full asset lifecycle, thereby significantly enhancing operational efficiency and fueling innovation in floating production systems.
Øivind Tangen, CEO at SBM Offshore, highlighted the company’s commitment to continuous improvement: “Our partnership with Cognite empowers us to industrialize the use of data-driven insights, refining each step of our FPSO lifecycle and elevating fleet performance to higher standards of safety, efficiency, and reliability.” The initial phase of this collaboration has already demonstrated promising potential in several areas:
* Prioritizing Maintenance: Utilizing AI for predictive analysis to safeguard the availability of critical FPSO components and spare parts.
* Reducing Unplanned Downtime: Gaining real-time, risk-based insights into FPSO operations to prevent disruptions.
* Optimizing Lifecycle Costs: Prioritizing interventions and applying continuous learning derived from operational anomalies and events.
Dr. John Markus Lervik, Founder of Cognite, praised SBM Offshore’s approach: “SBM Offshore’s ontology-driven approach is an excellent example of how creating an AI-ready industrial data foundation enables real, measurable impact.” He added that by unifying complex industrial data and linking reliability models, SBM Offshore is combining wide access to contextualized data with deep domain expertise to modernize maintenance, reduce downtime risk, and create a scalable blueprint for digital operations.
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These partnerships underscore SBM Offshore’s broader digital ambition to harness industrial data and AI, solidifying its leadership in offshore digitalization and expanding a wider digital ecosystem for scalable AI-driven solutions across the offshore industry.
