Meet the engineers helping to keep bp’s refineries running

‘A culture of reliability’

Amanda Nurse oversees a global team of engineers focused on one of bp’s most business-critical priorities: keeping its refineries running smoothly. Her team plays a central role in bp’s global reliability improvement programme, where they work to reduce operational disruptions and improve the long-term performance of bp’s refining and oil and gas assets.

This focus directly supports bp’s reset strategy and emphasis on operational performance.

“We’re not just fixing problems; we are building a culture of reliability,” Amanda says. “We’re constantly asking what could go wrong, and how do we stop it before it happens so we can support long-term stability and growth.”

In her role as a reliability discipline lead, she has put a range of programmes in place, including vulnerability studies and root cause analyses to help identify potential issues before they escalate into shutdowns. Today, many of the tools she has helped to put in place are standard across bp’s refining operations.

“It’s about being rigorously data driven and making the right investments, at the right time, in the right places,” she says. “One of the exciting things about reliability is seeing how a small insight like a weak signal in a vibration pattern can lead to a big win for safety, performance and cost.”

Amanda’s approach was shaped by hands-on experience. Early in her career, she worked as a maintenance and reliability engineer at the Whiting refinery, where she often needed to solve operational challenges.

“A big part of my role at that time was ‘putting on patches’, responding to failure after failure. That’s when I discovered the tools that help you to get in front of problems instead of chasing them,” she says.

As one of the few women in her field early on, Amanda is encouraged by the growing visibility of women in engineering roles across bp. 

“For a long time, I was the only woman in the room,” she says. “Now, I see more women stepping into leadership, shaping strategy, and driving change. That diversity of thought is essential. It’s how we solve the toughest problems.”

Improving performance

At bp’s Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany, Courtney Pellechi is helping to keep performance improvement on track during a time of change. 

With the site currently positioned for potential sale, she sees the team’s commitment and passion towards their improvement agenda as essential elements of success.

“The transformation progress wouldn't have been as advanced if the team hadn't done a tremendous job in recent years improving safety and reliability,” she says. “We’re committed to the future of the site and our focus remains on maintaining and strengthening our safety, reliability and competitiveness.”

Courtney’s career began at Whiting refinery in Indiana, US, where she worked in engineering maintenance and operational roles. After 13 years there, she joined bp’s Cherry Point refinery in Washington State for three years before moving to Germany in 2024.

Now, as maintenance and reliability manager at Gelsenkirchen, Courtney is an integral member of the team driving the refinery’s ongoing improvement plan and a strong advocate of the collaborative mindset that sees refining teams proactively sharing knowledge across countries and regions.

“We have strong networks across sites that include maintenance managers, reliability leads and more. We learn from each other and apply those lessons quickly,” she says.

Courtney’s love of problem solving and her passion for science and numbers meant a career in engineering was a natural next step. She studied mechanical engineering and then successfully competed for a role at bp, after the Society of Women Engineers helped her to identify the opportunity.

“It’s not just about recruiting engineers,” she says. “It’s about bringing in people from different places, schools and backgrounds. That’s how you build better teams.”

Advancing digital 

At Castellón refinery in Spain, Mercedes Casamayor is helping to modernize how work gets done in one of bp’s most operationally complex environments. 

As reliability superintendent, she’s leading a shift from paper-based systems to digital tools, replacing clipboards with tablets and enabling smarter and more consistent data analysis.  

“The job of my team is to understand why failures happen, analyse the data from corrective, preventive and predictive tasks, and propose what we can do differently to avoid them. It’s about making sure equipment is available most of the time, so the refinery keeps running smoothly,” she says. “When refinery maintenance is digital, we can spot patterns, act faster and make better decisions.”

Mercedes joined Castellón refinery in 2004, moving between engineering and maintenance and reliability roles. One of her proudest achievements was leading the installation of a new system that improved site-based emissions-monitoring – an ambitious project that required interpreting new legislation and building a custom solution from scratch. Years later, when she saw vendor companies selling similar systems, she realized just how far ahead her team had been.

Her passion for engineering began with a love of physics in high school, and she went on to study industrial engineering, enjoying its breadth and flexibility. 

“I like understanding how things work, and why they don’t,” she says. “And I love solving problems.”

During her time at the refinery, she’s seen big shifts in diversity of thoughts, skills and experiences within the teams there. 

“When women see themselves reflected in engineering roles, it makes a difference. It shows that you belong – and that your perspective is needed. We all bring different experiences. That’s how we learn from each other and make better decisions.”