The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has designed a new digital platform to support the supply chain, which takes a paper-based process online and saves hundreds of hours of work.
Offshore operators will be able to use this online portal to submit and update supply chain action plans (SCAPs) containing information on their contracting activities.
A SCAP is required for all field development and decommissioning projects. The process was rolled out in January 2018 after an NSTA study showed that poor engagement with suppliers was contributing to North Sea projects being delivered late and over budget.
Operators use SCAPs to demonstrate that they are collaborating openly with suppliers early in the project lifecycle and the process allows NSTA to monitor changes and gaps in supply chain capability, and to promote best practice. More than 200 have been lodged with the NSTA since it began.
The online tool has been designed to make this process more efficient; it allows SCAPs to be completed in smaller, more manageable steps, and removes the possibility of duplication.
Previously, submitting a SCAP form required an employee to devote an estimated uninterrupted eight hours of work. The process should now take four hours in total - saving hundreds of hours of work.
“This new digital platform for SCAPs is another great example of the NSTA delivering for industry by streamlining processes and cutting red tape," said Pauline Innes, NSTA Director of Supply Chain and Decommissioning.
“It will help the NSTA make better use of the huge volumes of information contained in SCAPs, which are a core part of our work to ensure that security of supply and net zero projects are carried out efficiently and support UK supply chain’s evolution into a world leader in energy transition.”
The online portal is the latest in a series of digital improvements launched by NSTA, including the development of a digital system for processing applications to carry out work on pipelines and making data freely available via the National Data Repository.