Operational coordination planners across the Offshore E&P sector are battling against a disparate set of instructions, often sent via email as spreadsheets or similar. These instructions are only correct at the time they are published, as the dynamic nature of real-life operations necessitates frequent revisions.
Proven in operations across the globe, MarlinTMfacilitates the real-time coordination of activities across the Offshore E&P sector. From charter information through port call and berthing, SIMOPS, vessel planning and material scheduling, to monitoring, reporting and analytics; Marlin provides quantifiable efficiency, resulting in clear cost and environmental footprint benefits.
The Marlin digital ecosystem provides step-changes in transforming the management of maritime operations and logistics between port and offshore installations.
The Business Challenge
Efficient maritime operations require high levels of situational awareness, as well as effective and reliable communication between all stakeholders.
Logistics planners, installation managers, drilling managers, supply vessels operators, port controllers and other key operational stakeholders are often faced with fragmented and largely manual processes, preventing an effective theatre-wide tracking, management, monitoring and reporting of operations ‒ often leading to inefficient utilization of fleet assets.
Individual departments and third-party entities generate plans and schedules based on operational requirements. The plans are distributed amongst stakeholders, typically via email, PDF documents, spreadsheets or phone/radio calls; however, they are static and do not take into account the dynamic and constantly changing nature of offshore operations, with plans quickly becoming inaccurate and leading to potential confusion and delay.
This results in unnecessary (but often accepted) costs, increased fuel consumption and associated carbon footprint, coupled with inevitable knock-on delays, perpetuating the inefficient cycle.
In addition, the collating of performance information, fuel use, task activities, speed limit, proximity violation, number of trips, tonnage of materials moved, or even port charge estimates, are all tasks that are often perceived by coordination teams as an ‘additional burden’; nevertheless, collating and reporting on this information is a key operational requirement. Full automation of those tasks saves coordination teams time, enabling them to keep an eye on other critical aspects of the project.
The ION Marlin Solution
Marlin is at the center of the solution. The platform enables connectivity and live information sharing between stakeholders, with patented methods linking vessel plans/tasks, and schedules and positions to live, future (planned) or past offshore activities.
The Marlin ecosystem constantly monitors vessel activity (plan vs. actual), providing users with valuable information around operational performance. Operational changes (e.g., change of speed) or plan updates can be communicated in real time to enable just-in-time operations.
The ability to plan, communicate, implement, monitor, update and subsequently re-plan, within the common ecosystem, transforms the management of maritime operations by delivering increased efficiencies, reducing non-productive time, lowering costs, and reducing carbon footprint. Once the change is made, it is immediately available across the theatre participants—ready to act upon.
Simple Zone Creation and Monitoring
Having the ability to easily create and monitor zones around platforms, in ports, or fairways in between, is paramount to digital automation ‒ whether you need to monitor speed limits, proximity, direction of travel, permit-to-work, time-in-zone, number of visits/port-calls, fuel consumption, plan vs. actual or any number of other bespoke metrics.
Monitoring, KPI Reporting and Analysis
Once the zones are set up and configured in the Marlin database, the timestamped and geo-referenced data are available to be automatically interrogated to provide dashboards of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). This automatically provides a real-time window to give an instant quantitative measure of the items required.
Marlin utilizes cloud-based architecture, coupled with web apps, to connect users via whatever media platform they already use in the office, working from home, on the vessel, on the platform, or at the quayside.
Improvements in fleet efficiency and cost savings, together with a reduction in HSE exposure and carbon footprint, can quickly be realized when the whole ecosystem is deployed.
For more information visit www.iongeo.com/marlin or send an email to marlin.sales@iongeo.com.