Stena Drilling Fleet Undergoes Upgrade

Stena Drilling Fleet Undergoes Upgrade
Above is a drone shot of the Stena IceMAX drillship. PHOTO SOURCE: Stena Drilling

Six vessels operated by Stena Drilling have undergone a major information technology (IT) system upgrade, UK-based tech firm SRO Solutions reported Monday.

Under the 14-month contract SRO replaced the asset management software system on six vessels – four drillships and two semi-submersible rigs – with IBM’s Maximo software, SRO noted in a written statement emailed to Rigzone. The firm added that it performed the highly specialized IT upgrade on time and to budget. Also, it stated the six-engineer team from SRO delivered training on the fleet in the Canary Islands, Israel, Guyana and Scapa Flow in Scotland.

According to SRO Operations Director Andrew Carrie, the project involved consolidating vast amounts of data from Stena’s onshore headquarters in Aberdeen, U.K. and its fleet into one single platform. He said it included 7,500 unique pieces of equipment on each vessel and 1.2 million historical work orders.

“This was a very demanding, sensitive project which drew on all SRO’s expertise to ensure a smooth transition of data systems, from each ship and the headquarters, to the single Maximo platform,” remarked Carrie. “This was important as under the old asset management system the HQ and the ships were not fully integrated or tied into each other. We worked hand-in-hand with the highly professional and knowledgeable Stena team as all parties knew the importance of the project and this partnership approach was key to the success of the project.”

Carrie pointed out that Maximo now acts as one of the core pieces of software underpinning Stena’s IT operations.

“It is really exciting, after all the effort over the year, to see Maximo now in place working its magic for Stena after it took a leap of faith to invest in SRO and IBM,” Carrie said. “All the equipment and spares across the six vessels are now properly documented and monitored with the same codes, whereas before each ship had different codes for the same equipment which made maintenance and purchasing decisions very inefficient.”

In addition, Carrie noted that Maximo enables “proactive equipment maintenance” that prevents expensive and disruptive breakdowns while helping procurement to plan more efficiently and understand which spares can be shared between ships – and limit unnecessary purchases.

“The purchasing process is now massively streamlined so when equipment does need to be bought it can be done in bulk from a single vendor for all the ships, bringing down costs,” Carrie said. “When you consider that ships like those in the Stena fleet spend millions every year on equipment it is vital to ensure costs are controlled, which Maximo does. In addition, Maximo provides live foreign exchange rates ensuring Stena has the option to use the currency with the strongest buying power.”

To contact the author, email mveazey@rigzone.com.



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