Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
Keywords: ARC Forum, Automation, Interoperability, Standardization, OPAF
Overview
At the ARC Forum in Sitges on May 6th, a dedicated session on the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF) brought together key industry voices to share updates and insights. Led by ARC’s Luciano Narcisi, the session featured presentations from ExxonMobil, Shell, Stahl, Yokogawa, and SMAR, covering real-world OPAS implementations, certification progress, collaboration with Namur, and user adoption. Lively audience engagement and a strong emphasis on neutrality highlighted the Forum’s commitment to open, vendor-neutral collaboration. The session underscored OPAF’s momentum in shaping the future of interoperable automation systems.
Leading the Way in Open Process Automation with ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Lighthouse Project
Michel Teughels from ExxonMobil, with support from Kelly Li, presented the company’s experience with the Baton Rouge OPA Lighthouse Project. The site features a fully operational Open Process Automation system managing around 1,000 I/O. Core technologies include virtualization, deployment orchestration, OPC UA with the O-PAS model, and container-based logic execution and communication. Michel emphasized this is a full reference implementation—not a pilot—turned over to operations ahead of schedule. The team adopted a rigorous FAT strategy, summed up by their motto: “We Torture Instead of Test,” to push system boundaries.
The project required adapting to modern tools and rethinking traditional control approaches. Today, the system runs reliably, with strong support from operators and engineers. Building on this success, ExxonMobil is shifting to commercialization and scaling through “steppingstone” projects aimed at broader deployment across SCADA and DCS environments. This phased approach supports internal adoption while contributing to an open automation ecosystem. Concurrently, OPAF continues to evolve the O-PAS standard and expand certified supplier offerings to ensure interoperability and long-term scalability across the industry.
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