Oil company BP has commissioned Kongsberg Digital to develop and install a digital twin for the Mad Dog Phase 2 rig in the Gulf of Mexico . Kongsberg Digital is the software arm of the Norwegian technology company, Kongsberg, which is currently on the road to success: In mid-March, Kongsberg signed with Qatar, the largest single order in its history, worth around 1.6 billion euros .

BP wants a custom multi-purpose dynamic simulator (MPDS) for the platform. It will be integrated into the control and safety systems, allowing realistic simulations to help engineers increase the efficiency of the drilling platform. Kongsberg uses the process simulation K-Spice and the flow simulator LedaFlow for this purpose. The finished Digital Twin will take into account all over-and underwater systems of Mad Dog Phase 2 and will be delivered one year before oil production is commenced. The employees on the drilling platform can thus train in advance and therefore increase the overall safety of the rig. The background to this decision is likely to be the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which caught on fire in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, killing several people. The oil spill that followed was one of the worst environmental catastrophes, costing BP about $65 billion so far.