A proposal to combine the North Sea “offshore passport” personnel systems of the UK and Norwegian sectors of the North West Europe Continental Shelf has been tabled.
The company behind the idea is Tieto Oil & Gas, which developed and operates DaWinci, Norway’s equivalent of the Vantage POB system that has operated successfully on the UKCS since 2003.
The claim is that marrying the two would deliver a number of health and safety-related benefits and create a more streamline service to operators and contractors that routinely send personnel offshore.
Atle Hauge, director oil & gas operations support solutions at Tieto, has already tabled a proposal with key organisations and companies in the UK, primarily Aberdeen.
He has told Energy that notes have gone out to Oil & Gas UK satellite LOGIC as well as key logistics people within BP, BG, Shell, Statoil and Total in the UK, the Netherlands and in Norway. Les Linklater of Step Change has also been contacted.
Hauge calls it the Pan North Sea Industry Personnel Logistics Solution and says Tieto is working with two systems . . . DaWinci, the Norwegian (shared database) system, plus PTS, which coves 25 countries.
“I believe we all share the view that we need to continue the effort of reorienting the way of working, pursue cost savings, but even more so; dare to explore and introduce disruptive cost saving initiatives – to take the next industry step change,” said Hauge, adding that the idea already has Statoil support.
DaWinci was the world’s first offshore oil & gas industry personnel passport; it started in 2001.
According to Hauge, the system has since “evolved to a comprehensive and sophisticated solution that provides self-services, accommodates decentralised work processes, offers mobility and is highly interactive”.
He said it had undergone multiple upgrades over the years – the most recent a year ago. It was claimed that Vantage POB had received less attention.
Hauge said too that both systems were no longer working at the kind of capacity experienced prior to the current oil price slump.
Energy got in touch with Linkater who said it was important that such a proposal would have to deliver tangible benefits, including helping to improve safety and operational efficiency.
He pointed out that the UKCS has a “perfectly workable system and that Norway has one too”. Also, was this an instance where standardisation, though laudable at first glance, might be an expensive mistake?
Linklater pointed to issues like the complexity of migrating data from Vantage POB into a common system, and persuading people to move away from something they were comfortable with.
But he also agreed that the proposal should not be dismissed without discussion, though that it would a matter for LOGIC.
“There’s merit in having the discussion,” said Linklater. “Everybody has the right to be listened to.”
It turns out that LOGIC is indeed planning to discuss the Tieto proposal shortly at its next scheduled board meeting.
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