Oil & Gas Operations Blog
Practical guidance on permit to work, process safety management, joint integrity, and digital transformation for oil and gas and offshore energy operators — from the Elisian team.
What Is an Isolation Register — and Why Does It Matter?
An isolation register is one of the most important documents on any industrial site. It is also one of the most commonly misunderstood — treated as a record of what has been isolated rather than as an active control that governs whether people can work safely.
Contractor Safety Management on Complex Industrial Sites: Where the Gaps Are
Most serious incidents on industrial sites involve contractors. Not because contractors are less competent than direct employees, but because the systems designed to keep them safe often assume a level of integration and oversight that does not exist in practice.
What Is a Safety Critical Element — and How Should You Be Managing Them?
Every offshore installation and major hazard facility has safety critical elements — the physical barriers and systems that stand between a hazardous event and a major accident. Knowing what yours are is the starting point. Being able to demonstrate that they are performing to their required standard is what the regulator actually asks for.
Lone Worker Safety in the Energy Sector: Where Permit to Work and Operational Assurance Must Work Together
Working alone in an industrial environment is not inherently prohibited under UK law — but it carries obligations that many energy sector operators are not fully meeting. When something goes wrong with a lone worker, the question is never whether a policy existed. It is whether the system around that worker actually kept them safe.
Shift Handover Best Practices for Offshore Operations
More incidents in offshore operations occur in the first two hours of a shift than at any other point in the working day. The reason is almost always the same: the incoming team did not have an accurate picture of what the outgoing team left behind.
The Hidden Cost of Paper-Based Permit to Work Systems
Paper-based permit to work systems are not free. They carry costs that rarely appear in a budget line — until an incident, an audit finding, or a near-miss makes them visible all at once.
Hot Work in Data Centres: Why the Permit Requirements Are Stricter Than You Think
Hot work in a data centre is not like hot work anywhere else. When you isolate a smoke detector to carry out welding or grinding, you are simultaneously removing the early warning system for a fire in a building full of energised equipment, combustible cabling, and raised floor voids that can carry a fire invisibly from one zone to the next.
Electrical Work in UK Data Centres - What a Permit to Work System Must Cover
The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 apply to data centres as directly as they apply to any power station or refinery. Yet many UK data centre operators are managing electrical work through informal controls that would not withstand HSE scrutiny or survive an incident investigation.
What Does Good Process Safety Look Like in 2026?
Process safety has never been more scrutinised — by regulators, insurers, and operators themselves. In 2026, the question is not whether your facility has a process safety management system, but whether it actually works under pressure.
See our platform in action
Find out how Elisian can digitise your safety-critical processes and reduce operational risk.
Request a Demo