British oil company BP has completed an autonomous vehicle trial at its Lingen refinery in Germany, working with Oxbotica, a specialist in autonomous vehicle software.

The trial was said to be a first in the energy sector and the latest addition to the BP Ventures technology portfolio.

During the trial the vehicle travelled over 180km fully autonomously, safely navigating the extensive and complex environment of the refinery, including busy junctions, narrow paths, railway crossings and multiple terrains, during both day and night and in unpredictable weather conditions.

UK firm Oxbotica was able to deploy its autonomy software platform and integrate with the existing infrastructure within two hours of arriving on site.

Following the trial, BP aims to progress to deploying its first autonomous vehicle for monitoring operations at the refinery by the end of the year.

The self-driving vehicles should enhance human operations and improve safety by increasing the monitoring for irregular conditions, faulty equipment and security threats, making it more frequent and around the clock. The autonomous vehicles’ enhanced analytics should help the site reduce the size of its current fleet.

“This relationship is an important example of how BP is leveraging automation and digital technology that we believe can improve safety, increase efficiency and decrease carbon emissions in support of our net zero ambition,” said Morag Watson, BP senior vice president. “Lingen has 30km of roads. Intelligent technology like this helps us make the incremental but equally critical improvements to our operations, so we can continue to focus on delivering the energy the world needs in the way that it wants. I am looking forward to working with Oxbotica to explore how we can unlock the full potential of autonomy.”

The announcement follows BP’s recent $13m equity investment in Oxbotica. The partnership will give Oxbotica access to BP’s operations, retail sites and customer network, helping unlock its potential.

“As part of our first refinery trial in Lingen, we showcased how autonomy improves safety, reduces emissions and improves productivity,” said Ozgur Tohumcu, CEO at Oxbotica. “The investment from BP will allow us to scale our autonomous software platform across the energy ecosystem with a number of planned use cases and unlock the true power of universal autonomy.”

Beyond the trial, BP believes Oxbotica’s technology can help it create an inherently safer operating environment for field workers through its reliable, repeatable and predictable application.

The software can be installed into any vehicle and can work indoors, outdoors, underground, in any weather condition and any time of day or night. It has zero dependence on external infrastructure such as GPS or third-party mapping and is completely sensor and platform agnostic.

“Oxbotica’s technology makes autonomous vehicles safer due to improved vision, more efficient due to reduced downtime and less carbon intensive through forensic control of acceleration, braking and driving patterns,” said Erin Hallock, managing partner at BP Ventures. “We are delighted to partner with a business at the forefront of the future of mobility that can modernise BP through autonomy and look forward to scaling the software across BP’s ecosystem.”

Oxbotica was founded in 2014 as an Oxford University spin-out with a mission to develop autonomy software that will transform industries where people and goods move.

• BP has joined the IBM Quantum Network to advance the use of quantum computing in the energy industry. This will give BP access to IBM’s quantum expertise and software, and cloud-based access to its quantum computers. This includes access to a premium 65-qubit quantum computer, the largest universal quantum system available to industry. BP says it will work with IBM to explore using quantum computing to solve business and engineering problems and explore the potential applications for driving efficiencies and reducing carbon emissions.