Digital Energy Journal- Brunei Shell - moving documents to a standard structure

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Brunei Shell - moving documents to a standard structure

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Brunei Shell embarked on a project to move technical documents onto a centralized structure, to ensure that they were accessible to the people who needed them.

Brunei Shell recently embarked on a project to put technical documents into a centralized structure, so they would be available to the people who needed them.

Hjh Noor Raidah Hj Basir, subsurface and wells document records management (DRM) coordinator with Brunei Shell, explained at the Digital Energy Journal forum in Kuala Lumpur.

The subsurface and wells document records management team of Brunei Shell is part of the technical data management department but focusses on the 'document side' of data. This includes making sure documentation is kept safe.

Before the project began in 2018, documents were being stored in multiple places around the company, including drives on personal computers, different SharePoint drives not accessible to the people who needed them. There were also multiple copies of documents in circulation around multiple departments, she said.

Sometimes a person would leave the company and no-one else would have access to their documents. Another problem was a lack of confidence among staff using documents created by someone who had left the company, because no-one could be held accountable for any problems with them. It was not easy to find out if the person was replaced by another person in the same role.

Documents were getting lost, or misfiled. A lot of time was being wasted searching for them. Sometimes people were having to 'recreate' a file they could not find.

There were compliance problems, such as not being able to produce a project control assurance plan document when required.

People were asking for a means of proving that data was correct and could not find the document showing the calculation method and source. For example, asking, 'how can you prove to me this TD (total depth) is correct if you don't have the document that proves it?'

The new system

The new system involves standardised structure of documents which would be saved for each project. The standardized structure includes a specific data storage location. Specific roles and responsibilities given to specific people to ensure that the documents were properly managed.

There is careful control over who had access to the documents, managed by the data management staff.

All Brunei Shell staff can see a list of all the different projects, but they can only access the documents in the folders if they are authorized. Many exploration sites are also locked.

When you are logged onto the main navigation page of the project site, you can see the names of all the other people who have access. You can search for information about different wells or fields. There is a form to fill in if someone needs to be removed or added, and guide to how to use it. The project owner approval is obtained before access is granted.

Documents

Once logged in, you will be able to view all the documents related to the specific project and direct link to the documents which has been declared as records. . The system is the same for both completed and ongoing projects. There is a 'standard look and feel' for everyone.

Any final documents need to be 'approved' before they can be published as records within the site. The process is that upon approval, request for final documents publishing will automatically trigger an email to the publishing team for action.. The approval system and request are within the software, not handled by sending e-mails to people.

When a document is approved to be a permanent record, it is moved to the main records area and a URL link will be replaced in the original project site location.

The document management and the project leadership team can now easily monitor the progress of each project. There are controls in place to stop people copying documents or making them accessible to people who should not be able to see them.

There are now over 160 different project sites using the system. The company calculates that the amount of searching for documents has reduced by 50 per cent.

SharePoint problems

The new system has helped encourage some users to start using SharePoint, who were previously reluctant to move from storing documents on their own PCs.

The data management team holds a 'clinic' every 2 weeks where people can discuss any problems with the system, she said. Most of the problems turn out to be SharePoint related.

The clinic is an opportunity to teach people 'tips and tricks' on using SharePoint, such as how to upload multiple documents at once.

Associated Companies
» Brunei Shell Petroleum Co Sdn Bhd

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