CASE STUDY
Star Energy Adopt Pisys PTW across all UK sites
Summary
Star Energy introduced our permit to work system to replace a paper-based system, making permits and documents easier to access from anywhere and provide dynamic updates so that the team can track the status of permits in real time. The company realised an 80% reduction in time taken for audits as a result of implementing the Pisys system.
Background
Star Energy Group plc is a UK-based onshore energy business. It operates the largest number of onshore oil and gas fields in the country, as well as developing a number of geothermal projects across the UK. The company’s stated purpose is to provide for today’s energy needs through responsible oil and gas operations, while also transitioning to low-carbon energy, particularly geothermal, for the future. This includes UK heat projects and interests in geothermal exploration licences abroad (e.g., Croatia) that could support renewable power generation.
Challenge
Star Energy operate many onshore oil and gas fields across the UK, each with different characteristics and operating parameters relating to the maturity of the field and the characteristics of the extracted hydrocarbons. As a result, they are very busy maintaining, testing, and upgrading equipment across the business with a large team spread across over 90 sites in the East Midlands and the Weald Basin in Southern England.
Their paper-based permit to work system was no longer adequate for the business. Although each site had a permit board where site permit information was displayed it was difficult to consolidate this information and they were finding it difficult to get a single repository where they could see all the live permits across all their sites.
As paper based permits have several key disadvantages they needed something which would allow them to perform a large range of tasks in hazardous environments, and they needed to adopt a system which would be flexible enough to accommodate the full range of activities that they undertake.
Rob Goodson, HSEQ Specialist said “Paper permits were distributed across all our sites meaning that staff had to travel extensively to access all the relevant information, especially during audits – we needed to significantly reduce the time spent in handling data”
Solution
“We went to tender with our requirements, and after evaluating several systems we selected Pisys” said Rob Goodson
“The system is cloud-based which allows permits to be created and managed across all our sites very easily, and the company carry a high level of security accreditation which is increasingly important to us”
“Setup was very straightforward and we were able to get staff onboarded and using the system very quickly. Since it is accessible from a browser, they did not have to install anything locally, which is a huge benefit when there is a large number of personnel working on sites where we do not necessarily control the IT infrastructure”
Result
An immediate benefit was that the system provided a centralised and easily accessible overview, so that authorised personnel could swiftly review, approve, and track work permits.
Rob commented “The traditional permit boards which were previously in place at each site have been replaced by a dynamic permit list so that we can see real-time updates and notifications, and stakeholders are always able to track the progress and status of each permit. This is significant for us as we can now see a picture of permit tasks across the whole business without having to move paper around”
“Staff are also able to attach copies of documents such as risk assessments and photos of work sites etc to help those completing the permit, which was extremely difficult to manage with a paper-based system” said Rob
IMPROVED
Efficiency
80% REDUCTION
In Internal Audit Costs
REAL-TIME
Updates
Testimonial
'Overall, the Permit to Work system has improved operational efficiency, further enhanced safety and helped us to consolidate vital data on activities across our sites, which in turn has positioned us exceptionally well for growth. Because the system is scalable it is very easy for us to add new sites and the flexibility of the configuration allows us to accommodate any type of task, so we're well placed to move forward with our plans to extend our geothermal business in the future. We're happy with the system and with the support provided by Pisys'
