Saudi Aramco and Yokogawa deploy AI Agents at Gas Plant

A remarkable success has been reached by Saudi Aramco and Yokogawa Electric Corporation through the introduction of several autonomous control AI agents at the Fadhili gas plant in Saudi Arabia, which is an important step forward in the area of industrial artificial intelligence. The use of AI has greatly improved the efficiency of the plant’s natural gas processing unit, and as a consequence, there have been reports of lower usage of energy and chemicals.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation (TOKYO: 6841), the process automation pioneer, declared that this milestone is a major advancement in its partnership with Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil and gas company. The AI upshot harnesses a multi-agent architecture rooted in the Factorial Kernel Dynamic Policy Programming (FKDPP) reinforcement learning algorithm, which allows the autonomous management and enhancement of the plant’s acid gas removal (AGR) process.

The rollout was executed in three phases. Each stage progressively optimized plant operations, culminating in full autonomous control of the AGR unit’s core processes. To ensure safety and reliability, Yokogawa first developed a simulation system to train and validate the AI agents before integrating them into the plant’s CENTUM VP production control system, which leveraged existing safety mechanisms.

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Preliminary data from the ongoing evaluation phase shows strong results. The Fadhili plant recorded reductions of 10% to 15% in amine chemical and steam consumption, about 5% in electricity use, improved process stability, and a marked decrease in operator intervention, even under changing environmental conditions.

Yokogawa Electric defines autonomous control AI as a system capable of independently determining optimal control methods, demonstrating resilience, and adapting to unfamiliar situations. The FKDPP algorithm, co-developed with the Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), earned Japan’s 2023 Prime Minister’s Award for Industrial Technology Innovation.