PROTEAN now safeguards over 600 major pieces of rotating equipment across PETRONAS offshore platforms, LNG plants and international locations.
IN a world constantly striving for progress and a more sustainable future, innovation is the very engine of change.
This spirit of innovation is fundamental in PETRONAS, driving the integrated energy company to create better solutions that enrich lives and address complex technical challenges.
It sees innovation as a means of solving technical challenges and transforming ideas into scalable solutions that deliver real commercial value, and it is now looking to share these advancements more broadly to create a positive impact across the energy sector and beyond.
Solutions for a lower-carbon future
This commitment to innovation is vital as PETRONAS accelerates its transition towards a lower-carbon future, and it is spearheaded by its passionate talents.
PROTEAN monitors how rotating equipment, like turbines, compressors and pumps behave, spots early signs of trouble and sends alerts before anything breaks. This helps engineers fix problems early, avoid costly downtime and production losses.
Their work bridges the gap between research and development and market-ready offerings, helping the integrated energy company unlock new revenue streams and strengthen its leadership in the energy sector.
This includes reducing emissions in its core operations and investing in new opportunities for lower-carbon business growth.
Challenge that sparked an idea
One prime example of the outcomes of this innovative spirit is Predictive Rotating Equipment Analytics (PROTEAN).
This technology was developed in-house by a group of PETRONAS asset-performance engineers.
It is a predictive maintenance solution that leverages advanced analytics to remotely detect unusual patterns, anticipate impending failures and pinpoint opportunities for enhanced reliability.
Harris said that with continuous demonstration of PROTEAN’s efficacy and reliability, PETRONAS managed to build up the confidence among the operational teams for its use.
Imagine a health tracker for machines that spin, like turbines, compressors and pumps.
PROTEAN “watches” how they behave, spots early signs of trouble, and sends alerts before anything breaks.
This helps engineers fix problems early, avoid costly downtime and production losses.
PETRONAS’ Integration, Value & Assurance (IVA) technical advisor Harris A Rahman Sabri, who oversees the development of PROTEAN, said the solution addresses the high cost, inefficiencies and limitations of standard remote rotating machine monitoring systems.
Ismail said that PROTEAN’s remote monitoring and anomaly detection features are a powerful tool for ensuring operational continuity and safety, even in the most remote or harsh environments.
“Previously, PETRONAS engaged third-party services to monitor rotating equipment,” he said.
“Often, the solutions provided are not from the perspective or pain points of operators, resulting in the operators or equipment users not experiencing the maximum returns on cost,” he mentioned.
Fragmented data, compounded by a lack of integrated team collaboration, created blind spots.
“We couldn’t identify subtle anomaly trends, which led to numerous unexpected equipment failures.
“We needed a unified, intelligent solution to enhance our operational insights and prevent these issues,” Operationalisation lead Rozanna Roslan added.
Proven, scalable success
PROTEAN fills the gap for a smarter, revolutionary monitoring and maintenance solution.
What sets it apart is its unique in-house algorithm – the intelligence behind PROTEAN – that proactively detects anomalies, provides prescriptive insights to help prevent major failures and significantly cuts down on costly downtime and maintenance.
“PROTEAN’s remote monitoring capability gave a continuous oversight of vital equipment, accessible anytime, anywhere via a laptop,” explained Rozanna.
“It has truly transformed how we monitor our critical assets.
“Its remote monitoring capability gives us continuous oversight of vital equipment, accessible anytime, anywhere via a laptop,” explained Rozanna.
This has led to scalability and tangible cost efficiency.
What started as a modest pilot with just two units in 2017 scaled dramatically once PROTEAN started winning the trust of engineers and operators.
“PROTEAN is setting its sights on global leadership in remote monitoring and diagnostics, with a mission to reduce operational downtime, cut maintenance costs and boost efficiency across its systems,” she added.
“The successful pilot at the Angsi Offshore Platform was our proof point.
“With continuous demonstration of its efficacy and reliability, we steadily built confidence among the operational teams,” said Harris.
PROTEAN now safeguards over 600 major pieces of rotating equipment across PETRONAS offshore platforms, liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants and international locations.
This widespread adoption is a direct result of its affordability, delivering a faster return on investment and making sophisticated predictive maintenance truly accessible for PETRONAS’ entire portfolio.
These initiatives, hosted securely on corporate cloud, have delivered tangible proof of PROTEAN’s effectiveness.
Specifically, these deployments have demonstrated a remarkable return on investment, leading to significant savings by detecting early equipment failures and significantly reducing downtime.
This impressive outcome highlighted a strong return on equipment reliability, solidifying PROTEAN’s proven value.
PETRONAS’ ecosystem of support
PETRONAS’ continuous innovation and technological advancement is about empowering the workforce towards achieving operational excellence.
It has built the foundation for a cutting-edge digital ecosystem, to create value across core operations, enable future growth and support Net Zero ambitions.
This relentless pursuit of technological excellence is anchored in the enterprise’s purpose to enrich lives for a sustainable future.
This includes empowering the workforce with a conducive ecosystem for innovation, improving working environments, and continuously upskilling them to meet current and future demands, in addition to leveraging technologies to benefit the industry and beyond.
PROTEAN’s journey from concept to widespread adoption was not just about the technology, it was also made possible by PETRONAS’ robust innovation ecosystem, which is designed to empower its researchers and expand the adoption of its solutions.
“This innovation ecosystem supports PROTEAN’s commercialisation through a structured acceleration framework that prioritises deployment across PETRONAS assets, secures governance endorsement, and builds institutional capabilities – ensuring the technology delivers measurable operational impact while gaining market validation and stakeholder confidence for broader adoption,” explained Harris.
This strong, integrated support system powered PROTEAN’s implementation and growth, leading it to earn external recognition and awards under the national spotlight.
Cultivating innovators for tomorrow
PROTEAN’s achievements have earned significant industry
validation. The solution received multiple prestigious awards, including the 2021 IEM Award for Contribution to Engineering Industry in Malaysia (Digital Industry) from the Institution of Engineers Malaysia and the 2024 Engineering Innovation Excellence Award from the Board of Engineers Malaysia.
These accolades underscore the in-house digital innovation’s commercial impact and technical prowess.
For Harris, seeing PROTEAN evolve from a concept to a well-adopted and commercially viable solution brought immense personal satisfaction.
His journey reflected the passion and drive of PETRONAS’ researchers to translate groundbreaking research into impactful, commercialised solutions that optimise operations and accelerate the energy transition towards a sustainable future.
He advised researchers and engineers developing future
technologies to stay curious and persistent, emphasising that “innovation truly begins with asking tough questions and
diving deep into problems. Don’t give up when things get challenging, breakthroughs often follow those tough moments.”
Second, he urged them to embrace collaboration, stating that “great solutions, especially for complex issues like sustainability, rarely come from working alone. Team up with diverse experts across different fields – that’s where fresh ideas truly spark”.
Finally, he advised them to “always remember the positive impact your research can have on society and the environment”.
As the field of sustainable
solutions is constantly evolving, he advised researchers to stay updated with the latest research, technologies, and industry trends.
“Continuous learning will keep you at the forefront of innovation and enable you to contribute valuable insights to your projects,” he enthused.
External commercialisation and broader vision
After proving its significant value across PETRONAS operations, PROTEAN is now poised for broader application beyond the organisation. This homegrown success story opens the door to a wide range of strategic partnerships across major industries and energy giants.
It can also be extended to renewable energy firms managing critical assets such as wind turbines or hydroelectric plants.
“Beyond the energy sector, industrial firms like chemical plants and mining companies can significantly benefit from PROTEAN.
“Its remote monitoring and anomaly detection features are a powerful tool for ensuring operational continuity and safety, even in the most remote or harsh environments,” said Workstream lead Ismail Musa from the Technology Digital Business at PETRONAS Global Technical Solutions Sdn Bhd (PGTSSB).
The company is now exploring exciting ways to share PROTEAN with the wider industry.
From offering it as a remote monitoring service to partnering with global tech leaders, the goal is to make predictive maintenance more accessible.
Whether through licensing, cloud-based subscriptions, or full-scale enterprise deployment, PROTEAN is set to help more
companies reduce downtime, cut costs and improve reliability – just as it has across its operations.
This expansion also supports PETRONAS’ bigger goal of moving into cleaner, more sustainable energy.
PROTEAN’s smart monitoring has the potential to be deployed to monitor major equipment in renewable energy systems, such as wind turbines, solar panels and battery storage, enabling smooth and efficient operations.
“What truly excites me about this transition is the opportunity for genuine interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation to develop sustainable solutions,” said Harris.
Looking ahead, PROTEAN is expected to deliver even greater rewards to its users, leveraging advanced AI and machine learning to predict problems more effectively and expand its application across more industries.
With its strong track record and growing recognition, this homegrown solution is not only delivering immense value to PETRONAS but is also poised to help shape a future that is both digitally advanced and sustainable, thanks to the pioneering spirit of its researchers.
PROTEAN is available for commercial orders. Connect with the respective teams at pgtssb_bd@petronas.com for details.
