What is Petroleum Experts (PetEx)? #
Petroleum Experts Limited — PetEx, Petex or Petex Ltd, depending on who’s writing — is an engineering software and structural geology company based in Guildford, UK. It has traded for over 35 years and serves more than 500 clients worldwide. Its petroleum engineering software covers production modelling, reservoir simulation, field management, and structural geology for oil and gas operators.
One Windows service sits behind both paths. Petroleum Experts Licensing (PxLsConsole.exe) talks to the BITLOCK dongle attached to the machine for a standalone seat, or to the HARDLOCK server for a network seat. Two things follow from that. Some Petroleum Experts documentation drops the “s” and writes Petroleum Expert Licensing, so both spellings turn up in the field. Search for either when you’re scanning a services list or an asset inventory. And because one service covers both routes, finding it running on a workstation tells you the machine is licensed. It doesn’t tell you which of the two ways.
One change still catches teams out. Move used to run on FlexNet Activation. From Move 2019, Petroleum Experts pulled FlexNet out of the software and the licensing system, and Move now runs solely on the HARDLOCK License Manager. If your discovery depends on FlexNet tooling, it won’t see current PetEx usage at all.
Which license types does PetEx support? #
Two. They behave nothing alike.
- Network (floating / concurrent). The HARDLOCK License Manager serves these from a license server. Seats sit in a shared pool. A user launches an application, takes a seat, and gives it back on exit. Peak simultaneous demand sets the number you pay for, and once the pool runs out the next engineer gets denied. Server operating systems require network licensing — standalone keys won’t run there.
- Standalone (dongle-locked). A BITLOCK dongle plugged into the workstation. Desktop and client installs only, never Windows Server. The seat belongs to whoever holds the key, on whichever machine it’s plugged into.
That split decides what you can manage. Network seats you can right-size, harvest and reallocate. Standalone dongles write nothing to a server, so unless you meter the workstation itself, a dongle forgotten in a desk drawer looks exactly like a dongle in daily use.
Which software vendors use PetEx, and for which applications? #
One. Petroleum Experts Limited itself.
FlexNet Publisher, Reprise License Manager (RLM) and Sentinel RMS are all sold on to other software vendors. The PetEx license manager isn’t. Every PetEx checkout on your network belongs to a Petex product, which makes attribution simple and pooling impossible.
| Product family | Applications licensed through PetEx |
|---|---|
| Integrated Production Modelling (IPM) | PROSPER, GAP, GAP Transient, MBAL, PVTP, REVEAL, RESOLVE, OpenServer |
| Digital Operations Framework (DOF) | IVM, IFM, Model Catalogue |
| Move (structural geology) | Move core, 2D Kinematic Modelling, 3D Kinematic Modelling, Geomechanical Modelling, Fracture Modelling, Stress Analysis, Fault Analysis, Fault Response Modelling, Digital Field Mapping |
| Mining | Mineflo, Conductor, Intelligent Mine |
One vendor behind the whole estate means the spend concentrates in a few high-value features. Per-feature concurrency tells you whether that spend is justified. Total seat count doesn’t.
How Open iT supports your work with PetEx #
Open iT meters software usage across more than 6,000 applications, whether license manager-enabled, standalone or SaaS. It runs alongside your license servers and records what got used, by whom, from which host, and for how long. Collection is polling and log reading, so it doesn’t sit in the path that issues licenses.
PetEx is a supported license manager in LicenseAnalyzer™, collected two ways that can run together.
- License manager utility polling. Open iT polls the PetEx license manager every hour, sampling at five-minute intervals to capture current license use and availability, then transfers the preprocessed data to the Open iT Core Server nightly.
- Log file parsing. Every three hours, Open iT collects the PetEx license log files and converts them to its own format. Out comes the audit trail: total, individual, usergroup, host and hostgroup license-event records, built from real checkout and check-in events.
You’ll need a configured PetEx license server and its host name or valid IP address, an Open iT Core Client connected to an Open iT Core Server, and LicenseAnalyzer collection with the license poller switched on.
What that gives you:
- Peak, average and minimum concurrency per PetEx feature, so renewal quantities come from evidence instead of last year’s number
- Denial and queue events, separating engineers who are actually blocked from capacity you’re paying to keep idle
- The gap between a license checked out and a license doing work
- Idle sessions harvested automatically, back into the pool, without a support ticket
- Usage attributed to usergroups, hosts and projects, for chargeback and cost-centre reporting
PetEx reports in the same view as the rest of your estate. Two plug-ins extend it: CLIMS™ centralises license file and license server administration, and LicensePlanner™ models named-user, concurrent, token and pay-per-use scenarios financially before you commit.
Foire aux questions #
Is PetEx a license manager like FlexNet or RLM?
No. PetEx is Petroleum Experts’ own licensing system and it runs PetEx software only. FlexNet, RLM and Sentinel RMS are sold to many software vendors. The PetEx license manager isn’t sold to anyone.
What is the difference between a PetEx network and standalone license?
A network license is a floating seat served from a shared pool by the HARDLOCK License Manager on a license server. A standalone license is a BITLOCK dongle fixed to one workstation, and it won’t run on Windows Server.
Can PetEx usage be tracked centrally?
Yes. LicenseAnalyzer supports PetEx usage reporting through hourly license manager polling and three-hourly log file parsing, giving concurrency, denial and per-user reporting alongside the rest of your estate.
Where do PetEx license holders log in?
Downloads, license files and vendor support are handled in the customer area on petex.com. Open iT doesn’t issue or broker PetEx licenses. It reports on how the licenses you already hold get used.
Get the number behind your PetEx renewal #
Two numbers decide a PetEx renewal. Seats purchased, which you already know. Peak concurrent seats actually used, which the HARDLOCK license server doesn’t keep for you. Until you have the second number, the first one is your only anchor, and the vendor set it.
LicenseAnalyzer gives you the second number: concurrency history, denial records and idle-session data, feature by feature. Which PROSPER, GAP or Move features hit their ceiling. Which sat untouched all year. Which seats you can harvest instead of renew.
Book a walkthrough. We’ll take one PetEx license server and show you what the first collection returns.
