Tüpraş Implements the First E-Permit to Work (e-PTW) System
Tüpraş continues to prioritize the safety of operations while meeting Türkiye’s energy needs. The company has now commissioned an e-PTW system, which is implemented in all refineries to promote safety, transparency, traceability, and sustainability in business processes.
As part of its Strategic Transformation Plan focusing on new business areas, and its objective of becoming a carbon-neutral energy company by 2050, Türkiye’s leading industrial organization Tüpraş launched an e-PTW System, an innovative digital application, to support its sustainable refinery operations. This is an exciting first in both Türkiye and the energy industry.
The e-PTW system has been deployed in all Tüpraş refineries and aims to strengthen work safety in production processes and ensure standardization in all business processes.
This digital and innovative initiative enables a thorough and standardized evaluation of high-risk activities such as confined space entries, hot works, work requiring energy isolation, and lifting work, which are usually done as part of refinery maintenance and project works. Evaluation results help the company identify any necessary measures along with Best Practices and Lessons Learned references, ensuring that the work is completed safely.
The ‘e-PTW System,’ which helps monitor the field work with user-friendly software, is also significant in supporting Tüpraş’s sustainability activities.
In the units where the system has been deployed, it enables better work planning, a more qualified assessment of work risks, simultaneous management of multiple works, and convenient control of records that are always accessible.
This will help save both paper and labor.
Thanks to the e-PTW system, approximately 8,000 refinery and contractor employees in all Tüpraş refineries can improve their risk assessments and virtually monitor their working locations in the field. This system enables simultaneous control of work and will standardize and accelerate the processes of permit, approval, disapproval, suspension and cancellation.
The system also offers an innovative model to support productivity growth and allows the company to manage authorization based on increasing risk levels, significantly improving communication and cooperation between departments.
Tüpraş Technical Safety Director Pınar Çağdaş Duran highlighted that e-PTW is a control system that ensures the safety of non-routine activities such as; maintenance, repair, and project works and non-routine business operations of Tüpraş and added: “This innovative application of ours, which is the first of its kind in Türkiye and in our industry, is used by our maintenance and project employees in the production facilities as well as by our contractor employees. The e-PTW system helps us to standardize different practices, assess risks effectively through active participation, and proactively determine the control methods to be implemented in the field. The application is available on tablets and field kiosks and enables quick completion of on-site inspections and actions while streamlining and digitalizing approval processes at every step of the workflow. This way, in addition to improving occupational safety, workflows are accelerated to save a significant amount of time. We aim to achieve energy efficiency in vehicles, labor, and transportation services used for permit approvals and paper-based work permits that require physical archives. The number of work permit forms, certificates, and all documents used across our four refineries is approximately 4,300 per day. Thousands of employees and tens of departments expend significant efforts on these documents. Therefore, we are delighted to contribute to a more sustainable future with this innovative application and to improve safety and efficiency by preventing possible work losses.”
About Tüpraş:
In addition to being Türkiye’s largest industrial establishment and number-one producer in the refining industry, Tüpraş is the seventh-largest refining company in Europe and one of the most complex refining companies in the Mediterranean basin. The company has an annual crude oil processing capacity of 30 million metric tons in its four refineries. In 2021, Tüpraş announced its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050 alongside its Strategic Transformation Plan, which revolves around four business areas: sustainable refining, zero-carbon electricity, green hydrogen, and biofuels. The company aims to lead the energy of the future and Türkiye’s clean energy transformation. To read more on Tüpraş Strategic Transformation Plan: Strategy – Tüpraş (tupras.com.tr)