ExxonMobil engineer details first live OPA deployment at refinery

Live deployment reveals OPA's promise and pain points

At Yokogawa's YNOW2026 user conference, ExxonMobil systems engineer Toriano "Tito" Jackson delivered an unusually candid account of what happens when a production facility replaces its traditional distributed control system with open process automation — while the plant keeps running.

Jackson, who has spent 16 years working on control systems at ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge facilities, described a four-year journey implementing and now maintaining an OPA system built with Yokogawa. His session focused less on theory than on field realities: cost comparisons, outage windows, operator training gaps, and the kind of unplanned power failures that test whether new architecture actually works.

"It wasn't easy at first," Jackson told attendees, according to Control Global, which first reported the session details.

Breaking the proprietary box

Traditional DCS platforms lock plants into a single vendor's hardware, software, and upgrade cycle. Open Process Automation, developed through the Open Process Automation Forum, defines common standards — known as O-PAS — so controllers, I/O modules, and software from different suppliers can interoperate within one system.

Jackson compared it to plugging a USB drive into any laptop. "With OPA standards, you have that mindset with the products, and you should be able to plug and play with anything," he said.

ExxonMobil originally pushed for the standard in 2016, frustrated by total cost of ownership and inflexibility in closed systems. Yokogawa joined as a founding OPAF member and later became ExxonMobil's system integrator for the first field trial on a Gulf Coast production unit.

Economics and execution

The facility replaced legacy DCS cabinets during a planned outage, completing the physical cutover in one to two weeks. The new control room uses industrial PCs and remote I/O instead of proprietary controller hardware.

Jackson cited a stark cost difference: legacy DCS controllers can run $10,000 each, with repairs requiring shipment back to a single manufacturer. The industrial PCs in the OPA build cost closer to $1,800.

Removing vendor lock-in, he said, let the plant make hardware decisions based on operational need rather than supplier constraints.

Early friction, then stability

Jackson didn't sugarcoat the transition. Early on, roles blurred — he fielded calls on instrumentation and field problems that previously went to other teams. During one incident, routine maintenance on a Windows-based virtual machine briefly caused an operator to lose console control. No product was lost, but the scare highlighted the need for tighter communication between operations, engineering, and vendors.

The team's first major system upgrade was rough, with intermittent console control loss traced to software that hadn't been fully tested before deployment. Since then, operations have stabilized. Jackson said months now pass without his direct intervention.

About a year and a half into live operation, the facility has logged fewer cable failures, a sharp drop in support calls, and a clean third-party vulnerability assessment — aside from one critical firmware issue the team had already scheduled to patch.

The system also weathered multiple full-power outages, including one that knocked out grid power for six hours. The plant's uninterruptible power system kept the OPA platform running with battery capacity to spare.

"The best answers come through real operational experience," Jackson said, "not a lab."

Why it matters

ExxonMobil's deployment represents the first documented case of open process automation running a live production unit under real-world stress. The cost differential Jackson cited — an 82% reduction in controller hardware expense — and the system's resilience during extended power loss offer concrete data points for plant operators weighing whether to break from proprietary DCS platforms. Jackson cautioned that results vary by facility and that operators should assess their tolerance for transition friction before proceeding.

Control Global covered Jackson's session at YNOW2026 in New Orleans.