Following on from the successful global launch of its innovative track and trace solution - OverVu® - last month, Swire Oilfield Services, the leading global supplier of cargo carrying solutions is unveiling the solution to the Brazilian oil & gas market at this year’s Rio Oil & Gas Conference, taking place 15 – 18 September. Swire Oilfield Services will be exhibiting on the UK pavilion and presenting a white paper at the conference titled: Maximizing Operating Efficiency with Track and Trace Solutions.

The state-of-the-art software application platform allows companies to identify, locate and track assets, equipment and material across the globe through their web browser. OverVu uses customisable web services to integrate easily into existing business applications.

Nick Coaton, Swire Oilfield Services’ General Manager of Track & Trace Solutions, commented: “We have developed OverVu in response to our own business needs and those of our customers. While the use of Global Positioning System (GPS), Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and other automatic identification (auto-ID) technologies have been used by the industry for individual purposes, we are breaking new ground by combining these technologies and offering the industry’s first full service track and trace solution.

“In particular, OverVu has been developed not to just track cargo carrying units (CCUs), but to track equipment and material within the unit practically anywhere in the world - this is of significant importance to our customers. Supply chain inefficiency is a significant issue for the industry and one that is only set to become greater as operations move into more challenging environments.”

OverVu uses components which are compliant with international standards for identification of assets and materials, data communications and sharing events. This approach is critically important to the global energy market, as a means of fostering market adoption and growth.

 The oil and gas industry in Brazil is undergoing a period of great transformation. The logistics challenges in the upstream supply chain can be a major threat for the country to meet its goal to more than double today’s production level until 2020.

Marcelo Nacif, Swire Oilfield Services’ General Manager of Brazil commented: “We are introducing OverVu to the Brazilian market at a critical time. We estimate that the market already utilises 40,000 CCUs and as operations expand dramatically over the next six years companies will face the growing challenges of logistics and potential losses.

“Pre-salt exploration in Brazil indicated that offshore operations will soon be moving into deeper waters and areas much further from port. Giving customers full supply chain visibility through OverVu allows them to make better, more accurate business decisions saving time, reducing operating costs and enhancing the safety of their staff.”

With losses and delays in equipment delivery costing billions of dollars every year, such a model has been long awaited by the industry and has been called for by industry bodies including the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association for some time.

NOC Petrobras, through CENPES (Petrobras’ Research Center), has issued a Preliminary Technical Specification document with the rules to hire the service for monitoring the position and movements of CCUs and special equipment through GPS satellites, which, once fully adopted by Petrobras, will have the power to set the tone for the development of this solution in Brazil.

Key members of the multi-disciplinary team behind the OverVu solution were recruited by Swire Oilfield Services from areas outside the energy industry, including the military and retail sectors, where the location and status of materials is an absolute priority. The application of a range of auto-ID technologies has been well proven as a means of greatly improving the fidelity of supply chain data in these fields.

Mr Coaton concluded: “This is an exciting time for Swire Oilfield Services and we’re looking forward to introducing our new capability to customers in Brazil. We are focussed on tailoring the solution to meet our customers’ individual requirements and we believe this has the potential to revolutionise the energy supply chain.”

Swire Oilfield Services has a truly global presence with operations throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific.