GSE Blog 

Oil and Gas Solutions Series

This article is part of a series on satellite-based solutions that are intended to help oil and gas companies improve their bottom line by highlighting opportunities to leverage data in an effort to improve efficiency and operational safety. To view other OGSS articles, please see the links in the "Looking Ahead" section of the introductory article.

Real World Scenarios

After leaving the military, the primary doors open to me were in the oil and gas sector. I spent several years working for different companies ranging from coiled tubing, fabrication of offshore equipment, and transportation of tools and chemicals. Although the companies and specific jobs changed over time, many of the obstacles remained the same. Nearly all of the companies I worked for used tracking services on their vehicles but that is pretty much where it ended. There was little accountability for personnel, tools, equipment, and so on. A lot of money was being spent on equipment these companies already had but could not locate. Time and resources were being wasted due to drivers getting lost en-route or vehicles breaking down from a lack of preventative maintenance.

Client Obstacles

Running a profitable company is difficult in any sector. In the oil and gas industry, however, profitability is a beast of its own. Market volatility, government regulations, and basic operating costs make it very difficult for companies to become profitable and maintain that profitability over time. Managing large fleets of personnel, vehicles, tools, and equipment efficiently seems to slowly strangle the bottom line of each company in the sector. Companies are constantly having meetings to examine their profit margin and determine better ways to improve the safety, efficiency, and ROI of their operations.

The Solution

Maximizing ROI

GSatTrack is a complete telematics solution where clients can monitor, manage, and maximize their daily operations in almost real time through a variety of devices. GSatTrack has many different tools and features tailored for meeting the needs of many different companies, organizations, and entities especially within the oil and gas sector. GSatTrack is the perfect telematics solution for companies of any size, as the portal is built to scale with the organization. Over the last few months we learned about different key features of GSatTrack which are perfect for running and managing the day to day operations of oil and gas companies. Here is a quick overview of the features we looked at.

Lone Worker & Worker Safety

There are multiple features designed with lone worker and worker safety in mind.

• Two-Way Communication - send and receive messages and commands regardless of location.
• Driver Management - set of features used to maintain driver logs, identify specific individuals operating vehicles or assets, and contain important information regarding individuals in the field.
• Geofence Intelligence - a digital barrier placed over a geographic location on a map, visible only to portal users who can set up features like alerts to notify portal managers when an asset enters or exits.
• Alert Technology - a set of features utilized in conjunction with many different devices and terminals that signal an alert on the portal when a specific event is triggered.

Fleet Management

GSatTrack has a number of features tailored specifically towards fleet management. The platform offers companies a way to monitor and interact with their vehicles, personnel, and equipment from one easily accessible location. The platform is designed with hierarchy permissions so that companies can implement a tiered organizational structure within the portal, giving managers access to only the information they need. Platform managers can send messages, route assets, monitor assets, receive alerts, and much more. Platform managers can also run a multitude of reports to collect important data about their assets and daily operations which can be utilized to improve and enhance daily operations.

Application Programming Interface (API)

GSatTrack can ingest the data of hardware and APIs from many different products on the market. This feature also allows GSatTrack to extract data from some software portals that have device-proprietary packets, making it appear as if it were the primary portal. Some of the most common API tools used in GSatTrack are field operative location and status tracking, SCADA, M2M solutions, and application developer live data. GSatTrack API can be utilized as a third party processing platform to support more devices, consume more data, and feed this information into a single platform with few scripts. Custom data fields can also be created to accommodate data points that are not typical for GSatTrack allowing companies to tailor the portal to their needs.

Data Management

GSatTrack helps managers identify ways to save resources through a number of features. This includes monitoring fuel consumption in fleet management or identifying idle machinery so managers can equally utilize equipment across the board. Another way GSatTrack leverages data to improve a company's efficiency is through generating reports. Reports are generated through the portal by processing data retrieved through alerts. Reports can be automated to generate within specific intervals providing stakeholders with important data regarding operational efficiency within the company on a regular basis. All of these features allow managers to make well informed decisions which individually might increase efficiency in small ways but collectively improve efficiency for the entire company drastically.

The Result

GSatTrack offers oil and gas companies a way to reduce operational risks, improve ROI, and improve safety in the field. Platform managers have a unique set of tools tailored toward fleet management for monitoring assets, communicating with drivers and personnel, routing assets, and much more. GSatTrack API can ingest data from technology suites outside of GSatTrack allowing companies the flexibility of running multiple technology suites from one single portal. The primary obstacles oil and gas companies face everyday are keeping personnel safe, equipment running, drivers on correct routes, and an ongoing battle with efficiency in the field. GSatTrack allows oil and gas companies the ability to make changes that will actually help improve ROI by collecting data from day to day operations.