Lone worker RTLS. Mustering that works in hazardous areas.
For operators, EPCs and turnaround contractors across offshore platforms, refineries, terminals and petrochemical plants. We design lone worker RTLS, mustering oil and gas programmes and ATEX locating for people and assets — hybrid UWB / BLE / GPS stacks, IEC 62443-aligned, vendor-neutral.
We design mustering and persons-on-board accountability, lone-worker safety, hot-work permit geofencing and turnaround workforce visibility — engineered for hazardous, regulated environments. Hardware-agnostic across ATEX/IECEx-certified UWB, BLE, active RFID and GPS.
Oil & gas: the use case, and the numbers it moves.
The right radio for each job — chosen, never sold — mapped to your use case. That is what makes the ROI fast.
1 · Account
Persons-on-board are tracked for full mustering accountability.
2 · Locate
ATEX/IECEx tags locate crews and assets across the field.
3 · Control
Hot-work geofencing and lone-worker duress alerts in real time.
UWB → zones · Active RFID → mustering · GNSS → field
What we keep seeing.
Mustering is too slow
In an emergency, paper or badge-swipe headcounts can take 30–45 minutes across a large site — and still leave doubt about who is actually accounted for.
Lone & remote workers are exposed
Technicians in confined spaces, tank farms and remote wellheads can go man-down with no reliable way to raise an alarm or be located.
Turnarounds are chaos to track
A shutdown brings thousands of contractors on site for weeks. Knowing who is qualified, where they are and whether hot-work permits are respected is a clipboard job.
The use cases that consistently pay back.
Mustering & POB accountability
Real-time persons-on-board counts and verified headcount at muster stations in under two minutes for emergency response and drills.
Lone-worker & man-down
Duress alarms, no-motion detection and precise location for workers in confined spaces, tank farms and remote sites.
Hot-work & exclusion geofencing
Permit-linked zones that alert when unauthorised personnel enter hot-work, simultaneous-operations (SIMOPS) or energised areas.
Turnaround & shutdown visibility
Live contractor register, competency/induction status, work-front progress and automatic gate reconciliation during TAR peaks.
Asset, tool & valve tracking
Locate test equipment, high-value tools, scaffolding and critical spares across plants, terminals and laydown yards.
Confined-space & gas-detection link
Entry/exit monitoring tied to permits, integrated with wearable gas detectors for a single safety picture.
Hardware & software ecosystem
ATEX/IECEx Zone 1 & 2 intrinsically-safe tags · UWB and BLE safety platforms · active-RFID mustering · GPS / satellite for remote and offshore · wearable gas-detection integration — selected for your safety case and environment, never by price book.
Where we plug in
SAP · IBM Maximo · permit-to-work & control-of-work systems · competency / contractor-management platforms · ERP and HSE reporting · SCADA-adjacent dashboards.
What good looks like.
What we design and document to
ATEX 2014/34/EU and IECEx (hazardous-area equipment) · IEC 62443 (OT security) · ISO 45001 (occupational health & safety) · NORSOK (offshore) · API recommended practices · lone-worker standards (e.g. BS 8484) · permit-to-work / control-of-work alignment.
On a major refinery turnaround we had roughly 1,800 contractors on site. Manual mustering was taking over 40 minutes — unacceptable if it were ever a real evacuation. With ATEX-rated tags and zone readers, verified headcount dropped to under 90 seconds and persons-on-board was accurate to the individual. It worked because TRACIO designed it around our permit-to-work process, not bolted on after.HSE Manager · downstream refinery turnaround · EMEAAnonymised at the client's request. Reference available on request.
Where the payback shows up.
Offshore platform mustering
Real-time persons-on-board and sub-two-minute verified mustering for a fixed-platform emergency-response programme.
Refinery turnaround control
Live contractor visibility, competency gating and hot-work geofencing across a multi-week shutdown with thousands of workers.
Lone-worker tank farm
Man-down and duress alerting with precise location for operators across remote tank farms and pipeline pump stations.
Solutions for this industry
Relevant case studies
Common use cases — what we keep seeing.
ATEX/IECEx-compliant personnel tracking
Problem: Oil and gas facilities have explosive-atmosphere zones (ATEX/IECEx); personnel tracking must use intrinsically-safe equipment.
Tech mix: ATEX-rated UWB or BLE tags on personnel, intrinsically-safe anchors, mustering and zone-access integration.
Outcome: Personnel tracked in real time in hazardous zones, ATEX-compliance, mustering time reduced.
Mustering and POB (personnel on board)
Problem: Offshore platforms and refineries need real-time POB counts and mustering compliance — manual roll-call is slow in an emergency.
Tech mix: BLE or UWB tags on every person, gateway coverage at muster stations, integration with safety-management system.
Outcome: Muster compliance verified in <60 sec, POB accuracy real-time, regulator/insurance-audit ready.
Lone-worker safety with man-down detection
Problem: Maintenance, inspection and security personnel work alone in remote, hazardous areas — falls, gas exposure or incapacitation require auto-detection.
Tech mix: UWB or LoRaWAN tag with motion sensor, escalation through control-room dashboard, integration with security/EMS.
Outcome: Lone-worker incidents detected in <2 min, OSHA / regulator compliance evidence, insurance premiums reduced.
Permit-to-work zone enforcement
Problem: Permit-to-work systems control access to specific areas for specific tasks — manual enforcement is error-prone.
Tech mix: BLE-AoA on permits and people, zone-access readers, integration with safety-management.
Outcome: Permit-violations eliminated, hot-work and confined-space safety improved, audit-ready evidence.
Pipeline pig-tracking and inspection
Problem: Pipeline pigs (cleaning, inspection, gel) must be tracked through pipeline runs — lost pigs cause major delays and pipeline damage risk.
Tech mix: Acoustic, magnetic or RF pig-locators, AGM (above-ground markers), GNSS for marker location, integration with pipeline-operations.
Outcome: Pig-tracking confirmed, inspection completeness verified, pipeline-integrity reporting improved.
Tubular and OCTG asset tracking
Problem: Oil-country tubular goods (drill pipe, casing, tubing) are high-value rotating assets — losing track creates capital and re-rental costs.
Tech mix: Passive RFID or marking-on-pipe identification, yard-portal readers, integration with rotable-asset management.
Outcome: OCTG loss reduced 50%+, capital tied up in rotable assets freed, rental utilisation improved.
Turnaround/shutdown workflow
Problem: Refinery and platform shutdowns are €100M+ events with thousands of work cards and hundreds of contractors converging.
Tech mix: BLE-AoA on contractors, Passive RFID on critical-tools and parts, real-time turnaround dashboard.
Outcome: Turnaround duration reduced 5-15%, work-card status real-time, contractor compliance improved.
Critical asset health monitoring
Problem: Pumps, compressors and turbines are single points of failure; unplanned downtime costs hundreds of thousands per hour.
Tech mix: Vibration, temperature and acoustic sensors via LoRaWAN, integration with CMMS and PdM platform.
Outcome: Unplanned downtime reduced 25-40%, asset-availability improved, maintenance cost per barrel reduced.
Drilling-rig material flow
Problem: Drilling-rig operations move thousands of items per well; mis-routed material causes drilling delays.
Tech mix: Passive RFID on every batch and tool, rig-floor and storage fixed readers, integration with drilling-operations software.
Outcome: Rig-floor material-search time reduced, drilling NPT (non-productive time) reduced, well-cost per metre improved.
HSE incident reporting and investigation
Problem: HSE incidents must be investigated with full context — what happened, who was nearby, what equipment was operational.
Tech mix: RTLS data on personnel and equipment archived for investigation, integration with HSE management system.
Outcome: Investigation time reduced 50%+, root-cause attribution improved, lessons-learned implementation accelerated.
What buyers search for
Oil and gas EHS and operations teams typically search for:
- Lone worker RTLS — man-down, check-in and zone presence
- Mustering oil and gas — POB accuracy under alarm conditions
- ATEX locating — hazardous-area certified tags and infrastructure
- Hazardous-area assets — tools and portable equipment custody
We stay services-led and vendor-neutral — locating architecture, integration and programme delivery, not a platform pitch.
Who else sells into oil & gas locating — and what programmes get wrong.
Hazardous-area RTLS, mustering and lone-worker vendors, plus IoT condition-monitoring platforms, compete with intrinsically safe constraints that disqualify many warehouse-grade tags. Large EPC and Big-4 safety programmes often specify without RF field validation on the actual unit.
What programmes get wrong: importing warehouse UWB designs into classified zones; mustering KPIs that ignore turnstile and shelter reality; and vendor remote access that breaks the OT security model. Zone-rated, IEC 62443-aware design comes first.
What buyers search for
Oil and gas EHS and operations teams typically search for:
- Lone worker RTLS — man-down, check-in and zone presence
- Mustering oil and gas — POB accuracy under alarm conditions
- ATEX locating — hazardous-area certified tags and infrastructure
- Hazardous-area assets — tools and portable equipment custody
We stay services-led and vendor-neutral — locating architecture, integration and programme delivery, not a platform pitch.
Who else sells into oil & gas locating — and what programmes get wrong.
Hazardous-area RTLS, mustering and lone-worker vendors, plus IoT condition-monitoring platforms, compete with intrinsically safe constraints that disqualify many warehouse-grade tags. Large EPC and Big-4 safety programmes often specify without RF field validation on the actual unit.
What programmes get wrong: importing warehouse UWB designs into classified zones; mustering KPIs that ignore turnstile and shelter reality; and vendor remote access that breaks the OT security model. Zone-rated, IEC 62443-aware design comes first.
Frequently asked questions
What does lone worker RTLS include for mustering in oil and gas?
Lone worker RTLS combines presence, man-down and zone events so mustering oil and gas scenarios have a live headcount. ATEX locating tags and readers cover hazardous areas; the programme stays advisory and integration-led so your control room and POB systems remain the system of record.
How does RTLS account for people in hazardous areas?
Real-time location, mustering and POB counts - designed for hazardous and offshore environments - mean everyone is accounted for in seconds during an emergency.
Is the hardware suitable for hazardous (ATEX/IECEx) areas?
Yes - intrinsically-safe, certified tags and infrastructure are available for explosive atmospheres; we scope certification to your zones.
Does it support lone-worker and zone safety?
Yes - man-down, panic and restricted-zone alerts protect workers in remote and high-risk areas, with a coordinated response.
What else can it track?
High-value tools, mobile assets and the condition of critical equipment - combining safety with asset integrity and uptime.
How does it integrate with our systems?
Mustering, safety and asset data feed your control-room, access-control and EAM systems, with auditable records for compliance.