Get in Line: The Organizational and Safety Benefits of eMustering

January 23, 2020

The oil and gas market is driven by a number of technology trends, political issues, waves of supply and demand, and regulations. At times, it seems like the market is in a constant state of ebb and flow, with business affected by traditional drivers, such as government mandates and operational efficiencies, and other non-traditional markers, like challenging weather conditions. Additionally, the global economy continues to grow, propelling increased energy demand. But like nearly every other market today, the oil and gas industry is on the brink of a sea change. The adoption of advanced technologies is unleashing new ideas across the industry and even though we are in the beginning stage of being able to harness the power of these types of technologies, innovative ideas are emerging — all designed to support the core business, reduce internal investments, deliver products faster, boost efficiencies and enhance safety. This is welcome news because there are a number of challenges facing the oil and gas industry, from improving reserve replacement and ensuring workplace safety to reducing operating costs and limiting downtime. All of these objectives must be achieved while maximizing operations and increasing overall return on investment. Never has it been more crucial for critical infrastructure organizations to demonstrate a focus on safety, security and collaboration. Accounting for employees, contractors and visitors during the construction of this massive Canadian pipeline project is paramount. In the past, counting people during and after an emergency was conducted by a time-consuming manual roll-call process at a central assembly location or muster station. If a person did not say “here,” a search began. To ensure accuracy, team leaders had to keep track of who should be on site — a complicated task in large industrial sites where people enter and exit indiscriminately. eMustering provides significant advantages, as it is accomplished by automatically monitoring who is on a site or in a facility and then, upon an emergency, all personnel swipe a card at any available muster station. Identiv’s IT-centric, cyber-secure Freedom Access Control system, which is built to withstand cold weather conditions down to -35°C, uses encryption bridges at the edge to communicate with on-site and geo-distributed software. SiteWatch Safety Sentry SKIDs are rapidly deployable, self-powered eMustering and entry/exit stations. In the event of an emergency, two card readers, a Freedom Encryption Bridge and a cellular modem, along with a suitable low-output power unit, combine to provide site registration and muster information. Freedom enables monitoring of anyone who enters the worksite. In an emergency, each person that has previously entered presents a card to one of the multiple safe muster sites. Reports of who’s missing safe are immediately available on-site, at a head office or from any location around the world. With Freedom and SiteWatch, safety officers now have a cost-effective and reliable option to safeguard their workforce and visitors. We’re proud to be working to change the way the oil and gas industry approaches eMustering to help ensure safer workspaces. To learn more about this joint technology initiative, reach out to one of our experts at sales@hirschsecure.com.