An ATEX RFID tag bracelet for crisis management on oil rigs

Why did you develop a specific solution for rescue management?

Brice Clemente: In high-risk environments, such as oil rigs for instance, guaranteeing the personnel’ safety and security is vital – including sub-contracting teams often needed in that sector. Accident feedback analysis shows that the main causes of accidents are human failures or disruptions in the chain of command. Hence the importance to design and operate user-friendly tools adapted to these hostile environments, as well as to intensify the training of the staff in charge, through practise exercises.

What are the be-safe.O&Gmuster main assets?

Cofely Ineo innovated with be-safe.O&Gmuster, the ultimate Oil & Gas crisis situation management tool, that can be used in explosive atmosphere. The be-safe.O&Gmuster solution uses RFID ATEX technologies specially designed for oil and gas facilities. It allows a 75% reduction in evacuation time, compared to a T-Card based traditional system, and provides appropriate emergency responses. Upon arrival on site, each staff member is given a bracelet equipped with an ATEX RFID tag. Invisible readers and automated portals -judiciously spread all over the site- detect the signal transmitted by the personalized bracelets, thus allowing the identification and geo-localization of each bearer, in real-time, while they move. Should an emergency alert requesting evacuation be triggered, the site’s security managers have fix operating positions or wireless tactile tablets at their disposal, from which they monitor the muster procedure’s unfolding and optimize the rescue management process accordingly.

Thanks to this solution muster time has been reduced from 45 to approximately 10 minutes while mitigating error risks. As of today, approximately ten offshore or onshore sites have been equipped.

Are there any other possible applications?

Without betraying any industrial secret, we are currently prototyping a promising detection solution as well as a “man overboard” alert, based on our RFID technology, for offshore exploration/production.

With the continuous improvement of our products’ operational service in view, we are also working on the implementation of new features such as the detection of abnormal behaviours or the generation of scenarios adapted to sites’ specific risks, for simulation and training purposes.

We are also getting requests to adapt our emergency evacuation management product to other environments such as nuclear power plants or mining sites.

http://be-safe.com/