Time For Change: Meeting The Challenge Of Offshore Rig Moves – Manufacturing.net (blog)

Once a scenario has been simulated, contractors can project the right cost, depreciation and value in an upcoming contract before the rig move process begins. Being able to see the impact of moving a rig from one company to another is a benefit of accurate forecasting you get from a single end-to-end, fully integrated solution. The ability to forecast in this manner saves time and money for drilling contractors, critical in the oil and gas industry - now more than ever.

Once a rig move has begun, drilling contractors require visibility over vast data sets - accounting currencies, work orders, maintenance transactions and more. During the move, management also need to monitor the environmental impact, cost of operations, support for quality assurance and health & safety management.

Unfortunately, many drilling contractors still struggle with their disjointed and unintegrated solutions. None of their existing systems are comprehensive or agile enough to fully map the diverse requirements, processes and extra transactions required on a rig during a move. By bringing together all these data streams into a single solution, drilling contractors can reap the benefits of analyzing large amounts of real-time information - presenting an accurate picture of events and enabling well-informed decision making during the move.

Having access to a rigs complete maintenance history in one solution enables traceability, but also guarantees compliance. The global oil and gas environment demands a solution which can quickly adapt to compliance regulations to reduce non-compliance risk. Rig move solutions must enable full visibility into IFRS, US GAAP and SOX compliance as well as efficient risk management and environmental impact. Because the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has divided the sea into zones with different legal status and applicable law, and other rules may apply in territorial waters within 12 nautical miles of a coast, rigs crossing these jurisdictions may need to conform to different rules. Rig move must also take into account differing regulations for the asset itself, including the number of lifeboats, fire and gas detection systems, number of individuals allowed to sleep in a single cabin and other criteria.

From beginning to end, manual transactions pose significant risk to rig moves - causing inaccuracy, delays and spiralling costs. If a drilling contractor begins a rig move with fragmented systems, there is a risk the finance department will see an inaccurate picture of how the move has taken place.

Fragmented systems handling rig move processes may mean it takes the finance department months to recognize a rig has been moved to a new location. This lack of visibility and delay of information sharing significantly hinders operations, while backtracking to correct data creates unnecessary overhead costs. A solution lacking in integration may also result in rigs are moved from one locale to the next without being reconfigured to account for different regulatory regimes, placing the organization at risk of fines and recertification.

The right enterprise software can extract necessary data and then alert users of what objects need to be cancelled, closed and/or transferred from projects to conduct compliant and well-documented rig moves. This functionality enables a much more cohesive transfer of data, improves documentation for finance, optimizes processes and reduces error postings, manual corrections and overall transactions.

Real-time visibility, optimized solution processes and accurate forecasting bring real value to drilling contractors during mission-critical rig moves. These benefits directly contribute to industry efforts to reduce overheads and cut unnecessary costs.

For some organizations, adapting to the challenges of a rig move in the transforming oil and gas market may be intimidating. With the support of solutions designed to maximize operations, compliance and the bottom line, offshore drillers can make inefficient rig moves a thing of the past.

Patrick Zirnhelt is aVice President with heavy involvement in Enterprise Service & Asset Management at IFS North America.

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Time For Change: Meeting The Challenge Of Offshore Rig Moves - Manufacturing.net (blog)