Petrotechnics Secures Investment from BGF to Accelerate International Growth

Industry leading technology will maximize the potential of oil and gas assets worldwide and significantly reduce operational risk

ABERDEEN, Scotland, May 30, 2013 /CNW/ - Petrotechnics, the global leader of software solutions to improve frontline operational performance and risk management in hazardous industries, today announces the completion of £6 million investment from Business Growth Fund (BGF).

The investment will help fuel the next stage in the company's aggressive global growth strategy in new geographies, new talent acquisition and ongoing innovation, including the continued global roll out of its enterprise operational performance and predictive risk software platform, Proscient.

Based in Aberdeen and with offices in Houston, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, Petrotechnics was founded in 1990 and since then has pioneered proven solutions and successfully helped organizations in hazardous industries increase operational performance and improve risk management in the riskiest part of their operations.

Petrotechnics' software solutions are used on a daily basis by more than 50,000 personnel from some of the biggest businesses in the oil and gas industry, including the three largest independent Oil & Gas Companies. Petrotechnics software is used in frontline operations to help manage operations safely and efficiently across 385 sites on 6 continents including 80% of North Sea and 40% of Gulf of Mexico assets.

Petrotechnics' leading enterprise software platform, Proscient provides an easier and more dynamic approach for senior management to proactively manage the organization to optimize performance reduce risk.  Proscient manages the execution of frontline work safely and efficiently to help companies maintain asset integrity, workforce safety and the achievement of production targets.

Unlike the older generation of inflexible and static tools such as paper based Permit to Work and Electronic Permit to Work/ISSoW systems, Proscient provides an organization with the capabilities to consistently manage workload against risk according to policies across the organization whether it's one plant or a global enterprise.

Proscient is designed from the ground up as a robust and flexible off the shelf enterprise application enabling streamlined deployment and ease of use. It delivers hard ROI within months, specifically with a reduction in the number and length of unplanned shutdowns, a decrease in permit and contractor wait times, significant improvements in plan accuracy and plan attainment and most importantly with a positive change in the strength of the organization's 'at the plant face' safety culture.  As an enterprise platform Proscient provides further business value through its integration with other leading enterprise systems used by hazardous industries including IBM Maximo, SAP, Oracle Primavera and Microsoft Project.

It also leverages strategic big data to drive continuous improvement of operational performance. With data on every aspect of work that has occurred and more importantly with what is to come across frontline operations, senior management can use Proscient's integrated actionable analytics for the insight and enhanced decision making to move the organization from reactive to proactive management.  This consistent generation of data provides the capability to generate role specific metrics that are informative, actionable and improve decision making from the frontline to the boardroom.

"We firmly believe that with BGF's guidance and contributions we can truly take our organisation to the next level of growth," said Phil Murray, CEO Petrotechnics.  "We believe there is great potential for oil and gas operators worldwide to significantly improve their operational performance and enhance how they manage operational risk.  A system such as Proscient empowers all levels of management to proactively achieve operational excellence."

Mike Sibson, BGF Investment Director commented, "Our investment in Petrotechnics is a very exciting opportunity for BGF. Petrotechnics has demonstrated its ability to deliver complex software solutions to major oil and gas companies throughout the world. There is an increased priority on the management of operational risk and safety in hazardous industries, with several major incidents over the last decade demonstrating the potential consequences of poor control of work.

"The company's large installed base, the new software product Proscient, and the excellent reputation of Petrotechnics is an exciting combination. The investment is a great fit for BGF, which was established to invest growth capital in the UK's ambitious SMEs. We are also delighted to be backing Phil and the team, who are genuine experts in their field, and who have built the business with no external funding over the last twenty years."

BGF was established to provide growth capital to the UK's ambitious and growing small and medium sized businesses. Petrotechnics represents its fifth investment in the oil and gas sector and brings the total invested by BGF in Scottish SMEs to date to £30m.

Prior to founding Petrotechnics, CEO Phil Murray worked internationally for BP for 10 years in a variety of technical, operational and managerial roles. The business has won a number of industry awards from organisations including the Energy Institute and the Institution of Chemical Engineers, is regularly selected by the Society of Petroleum Engineers to present conference papers.

About Petrotechnics

Petrotechnics provides scalable enterprise software solutions and domain based consulting services that empower organisations in hazardous industries from the boardroom to the frontline to proactively manage the organisation to a less risky and more optimised performance. Organisations can standardise their approaches, improve how work is executed on a day to day basis and ensure frontline work processes can be intelligently integrated, embedded, automated and managed, and that the strategic intent of policies is delivered into operational practice.   

As work is being carried out according to policy, contextual data and role specific metrics are automatically captured as part of routine processes, providing meaningful insight and unparalleled operational intelligence.  This empowers structured decision making, improving competencies and capabilities to proactively balance workload against risk and enhance overall performance. For the first time, operational leaders can start to understand and proactively manage the relationship between performance and risk, and drive continuous improvements across the enterprise.

Over the last 12 years, Petrotechnics has pioneered; proven and successfully helped organizations in hazardous industries increase operational performance and improve risk management in the riskiest part of their operations. More than 50,000 people at 385 sites in 22 countries in hazardous industries currently use Petrotechnics solutions on a 24x7 basis. Petrotechnics is based in Aberdeen, UK and offices in Houston, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore.   http://www.petrotechnics.com

About Business Growth Fund

Business Growth Fund has been established to help Britain's growing smaller and medium sized businesses.  Growth potential is the key criteria. BGF will invest between £2m and £10m per business in return for a minority equity stake and a seat on the board for a BGF director. BGF will provide long-term equity investment for those growing companies that today do not have access to this source of capital.  As such BGF hopes to be a catalyst for growth among smaller UK companies.

BGF is an independent company with capital of up to £2.5 billion, backed by five of the UK's main banking groups - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, and Standard Chartered.  BGF is managed completely autonomously with an independent management team.

BGF is one of a range of initiatives designed to forge a new relationship between the banking sector and UK businesses, and BGF works in close collaboration with the British Bankers' Association as well as other key business organisations across the UK.  http://www.businessgrowthfund.co.uk

SOURCE: Petrotechnics

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