A crisis management firm is launching a new data system which it said will “protect lives” of workers offshore.
Restrata, which has an incident management centre in Aberdeen serving assets in the North Sea and internationally, is rolling out “The Restrata Platform” next month.
The system is a cloud-based software which can track the location of workers on offshore installations, reducing the amount of time to find missing people during evacuations and emergencies.
Restrata said it has identified a gap in the market for real-time data and the technology will “revolutionise” personnel on board (POB) tracking, which remains largely manual at present.
CEO Botan Osman, visiting the Aberdeen base yesterday, said digitalisation is a growing trend in the energy sector, but progress has been slower on the health and safety side.
He said: “How do you empower the person running a crisis in order for him or her to focus on what’s really critical?
“The missing person is the thing you need to focus on. If you can find that out within five seconds instead of five minutes, that’s five more minutes that could be potentially saving a life.
“The digitalisation process has really moved forward on the process and industrial side, but we haven’t seen the same level of momentum with the HSE, resilience and emergency response space.
“We think it is coming and we want to be the leaders in that space.”
The system will have a number of applications, tracking workers and visitors on board and assisting during the entire evacuation process through technology such as Bluetooth-based trackers.
Craig Menzies, a former Grampian Police hostage negotiator, is Restrata’s head of crisis management and directs the incident management centre in Aberdeen for several North Sea clients.
He said the new system would still rely on the use of trained staff, but will enhance the current procedures in place for emergencies.
“The processes are all well-practiced, I wouldn’t say there is a big delay there, but it could be improved on,” he said.
“With the use of technology we’ll have all those people live-tracked so we’ll know who is where at any given time.
“The key to any incident management is looking after people, who are always your first priority. To do that effectively, you need to have full situational awareness of what’s happening on the ground.
“The most efficient way we found to do that is with the Restrata Platform because you get live data streams. You know where they are and, more importantly, you know who is missing, if anyone, and account for them quickly.
“If you have full situational awareness, you can begin to make informed decisions.”
Restrata said it has lined up a number of North Sea clients ahead of the system’s official launch on April 16.
Headquartered in Dubai, Restrata is an international resilience and crisis management services provider.
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