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The modern offshore oil rig is much more than a giant hulk of tubular steel \u2014 it functions as a physical and virtual office, a temporary living space and a hub for communications. For oil workers, the oil rig has become a miniature home away from home, with its own communications infrastructure providing familiar comforts to narrow the divide between the worlds on land and on sea. The unprecedented access and connection that oil companies enjoy to their offshore rigs has raised standards and made their operations more efficient.<\/p>\n
Satellite has long provided oil and shipping companies with a bridge to connect offices to fax and voice services, and with the advent and evolution of broadband, those services now include data, email and video applications. The delivery of high-definition (HD) video to the harsh environment of the oil rig, once considered unrealistic, is now a technological and financial reality.<\/p>\n
One of the most valuable capabilities that satellite can and has delivered to the oil industry is a constant information flow to and from the rig, says Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) spokesman Francisco Montano, who adds that access to information is the first step to being cost-effective. \u201cThe introduction of broadband to oil platforms located in some of the most remote areas of the world was big deal for the industry. The fact that our exploration teams have the unlimited potential to communicate with each other is a real luxury at a realistic price. The rates for satellite broadband services via satellite have been lowered to the point where there are cost-effective options out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pemex, the world\u2019s fourth largest crude oil producer and Mexico\u2019s largest enterprise, has turned to satellite not only to enhance its own connections within its network, but to also put it all into perspective with a pair of eyes in space. Pemex was Earth imagery solutions provider DigitalGlobe\u2019s first customer of its Global Basemap subscription, which provides its imagery library via a cloud Services platform.<\/p>\n
Pemex geospatial information system manager Margarita Jord\u00e1 Lozano explains that the company is one of the few oil businesses in the world to manage all facets of production, from exploration and extraction to refining, storage, distribution and sales.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch complex operations require advanced data to support critical business decisions,\u201d says Lozano. \u201cPemex operates nearly 60,000 kilometers of pipeline, seven refineries, 77 storage facilities and 15 gas processing plants throughout Mexico. Satellite imagery has become a vital source of information to help us quickly and accurately assess what is truly happening across all of these locations. Now, on demand access to constantly refreshed imagery will give us a ground truth basis on which to make our most integral business decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deal is just one of many examples and representations of satellite\u2019s diverse role in the oil and gas industry \u2014 one that was created by a physical limitation and developed to tear them down. The biggest challenge for satellite operators and service providers is to evolve their technology as their offshore customers become aware of and familiar with the technology available to onshore consumer and enterprise markets.<\/p>\n
Others are also taking advantage of the opportunities in Latin America. Pablo Ya\u00f1ez, senior data product vice president, Global Crossing, says his company signed a satellite capacity deal with SES World Skies to support the significant growth it is seeing in its Latin America enterprise and energy markets, as satellite services account for about 15 percent to 20 percent of its revenue in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cOil companies involved mostly in the exploration and extraction part of the oil process are one of our main customers for this service. This exploration usually takes place in remote areas. The only option for them here is satellite communication. You have other industries like mining and fishing that also benefit from satellite. I would say these are the three main industries which benefit most from satellite in Latin America,\u201d says Ya\u00f1ez. \u201cWhere there is a lack of terrestrial infrastructure, the only option is satellite links. By extending our IP services by incorporating satellite, we provide a homogenous solution that customers can use to link different branches and sites.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like most executives, oil company managers aren\u2019t satisfied with understanding their assets \u2014 they want to see them. The ability for an onshore executive to share face-to-face time with his remote platform team brings a sense of confidence to the decision-making process, even when those decisions involve difficult challenges like diagnosing technical problems. Thus, video is an enormously practical application for the oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n
The expanded use of video applications has not taken offshore production companies by surprise. Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil, Canada\u2019s largest oil company with reserves of 1.7 billion barrels of oil and natural gas, expects the demand and usage of video to increase dramatically.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of our transmission requirements for connectivity now include some sort of video element. Not only that, but we\u2019re taking a future-oriented view that most companies have by looking to expand into social networking and the potential for applications on smartphones and iPads,\u201d says Rolheiser, citing a report released by NSR in April and agreeing with its assertion that enterprise buyers are looking to service providers for integrated, end-to-end solutions. \u201cThere are some views out there that are either completely for or against satellite as an option to provide those solutions. But the smartest approach in our business is to always be looking for the right balance between performance, cost, availability and necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rolheiser refers to the view that some customers in the oil and gas industry still believe that satellite- or WiMax-only platforms are viable. While speaking at last year\u2019s Offshore Communications Trade Show in Houston, Chevron IT Co. senior engineer Bryan Frederick was quite frank with his affordability assessment of WiMax versus VSAT. For Chevron, WiMax is slated to replace satellite VSAT connectivity in the future. While Frederick might have believed he was continuing the conversation about whether WiMax and VSAT are enemies or friends in the oil and gas sector, his case study did not convince a majority of the conference attendees that had invested in the potential and capability of hybrid systems.<\/p>\n
Tullow Oil has exploration operations spread around the globe, making its communications needs very complex. Tullow looks to use a mix of satellite and fiber to meet its needs, and CIO Andrew Marks explains that his oil company evaluates different communications technologies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe is still a significant market for satellite and the long-term VSAT deal, because there are extremely remote locations onshore and, equally, a great deal of our operational work remains offshore,\u201d says Marks. \u201cYou have to be realistic and say there is a long-term future for VSAT and long-term deals to be done. There is clearly still a substantial marketplace for VSAT. I don\u2019t think the end is nigh, but I do see the market narrowing and the growing influence of terrestrial. There is still capacity required by companies like Tullow Oil, and the terrestrial market cannot cover those requirements. VSAT does have that capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n
The performance over cost argument changes when discussing data connectivity for oil rig crew welfare. Oil company executive Jamie Vazquez, president of independent oil and gas company W&T Offshore, understands that the oil industry exists in the top-speed-connectivity-or-bust world that most of its platform workers have grown up in.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrew welfare connectivity has been a crucial element to attract workers from younger generations to work on drilling rigs. Most people in the millennium generation find it difficult to find food or friends without a GPS smartphone and a Twitter account. Very few people younger than 30 can go a whole day without streaming video as flash players now dominate almost every major news, information, social and sports information website. Netflix and Hulu are no longer luxuries \u2014 they are considered basic standards of living.<\/p>\n
The use of video in the energy sector has grown by leaps and bounds over the last decade, most say progress accelerated dramatically in the past year. Customers are most interested in HD video solutions for teleconferencing and operations management, searching for platforms with the ability to deliver larger and larger file sizes at faster rates.<\/p>\n
Ka-band video platforms have received a lot of attention from international energy sector communications customers, according to GVF director of international programs Kristen Kloster. \u201cSatellite\u2019s achievements in delivering high-quality video over Ka-band VSAT is making a big impression on the sector. High-quality video conferencing is a crucial capability for offshore platform operators. Satellite providers made a lot of progress this year on delivering these services and, in return, we are seeing a lot of excitement and engagement from customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The offshore platform\u2019s basic functionality relies on a strong voice service backbone, but satellite data and video capabilities provide a significant advantage \u2014 an always-on capability that supports critical areas of operational activity through emergencies and severe weather conditions. Kj\u00e6r Mj\u00f8s, frame agreement manager for Norwegian oil drilling company Odfjell, says this advantage motivated his company to spend $13 million on a complete, Harris CapRock VSAT communications suite providing voice-over IP, corporate networking, Internet access, real-time monitoring, reporting and crew infotainment services to its drilling units.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shopped around for an end-to-end communications service for seven of our mobile offshore drilling rigs and drill ships in the North Sea and Africa. We wanted this service so that we, as well as our clients, could focus on the day-to-day drilling operations and not worry about our connectivity whatever the weather situation may be,\u201d says Mj\u00f8s. \u201cThe North Sea provides plenty of harsh weather, but the operators onboard our rigs and drill ships expect our assets to be well-equipped with the latest in communications technology to enable their real-time operations requirements.\u201d <\/p>\n
When an oil rig experiences an emergency involving the platform structure or the crew itself, offshore and onshore personnel want to know that a series of safety measures are in place and functioning properly. Crews will say that the importance of communications cannot be underestimated in remote locations and harsh environments. Reliable communications provide both the ability to ensure the physical and mental health of offshore personnel \u2014 and a healthy crew is infinitely more productive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe environment out on an oil rig can be very isolated. In a sense, the offshore worker has the same needs as a member of the military serving in a battlefield \u2014 allowing workers to keep in touch with family and friends on a daily basis helps retain a high-level of crew morale,\u201d says MTN Satellite Communications president and COO, Errol Olivier.<\/p>\n
Voice, video and data satellite services are not only used for crew welfare in these situations, but also for medical services. Oil and gas executives follow an equation that increased profit and productivity, and reduced downtime starts with safety. \u201cAs fuel becomes limited, oil exploration teams are being pushed out into even more remote regions to look for resources. This can be extremely dangerous and inhospitable in regions where teams face unknowns on a daily basis,\u201d says Olivier.<\/p>\n
One of the most dangerous environments in the world for oil exploration can be found in the Arctic Sea in Northern Russia. JSC PO Sevmash, a shipbuilding company based in Severodvinsk on Russia\u2019s White Sea, employs a satellite telecommunications system for vessels transporting workers to Russian oil platforms. A Sevmash ship manager, who asked not to be named for this story, explains that workers onboard the platforms his company connects to now have direct telephone contact to land, as well as Internet connection and television signals.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recently brought 150 specialists from Sevmash to a platform in the Prirazlomnoye oil field located in the eastern part of the Pechora Sea,\u201d the Sevmash manager says. \u201cThere is a lot at stake in this area for production. That field holds resources of up to 41 million tons and annual peak production of about six million tons. A total of 36 wells will be drilled on site by 2019. Any problem that might occur on those platforms can now be solved immediately by contacting our specialists in Severodvinsk via satellite.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Gulf of Mexico also has its share of harsh weather, especially during the late-summer, early fall hurricane season. A hurricane can completely destroy an offshore rig. It happened in 2005 during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, during which, damaged and lost offshore platform systems equipped with satellite data-powered saved their owners $300,000 to $400,000 a day in revenues, according to ATP Oil and Gas COO George Morris.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt costs a lot of money to retrieve, repair and re-moor a storm-damaged oil rig. When the Gulf of Mexico experienced those severe hurricanes seven and eight years ago, in some instances, it took companies almost a week to locate their rigs, which blew off as far as 100 miles from their original location,\u201d says Morris. \u201cA satellite system that can reduce these costs by providing the precise status and location of a rig during and after a hurricane is highly valuable to energy companies. While these systems cannot prevent damage from happening, they can help us see what equipment and people we need to deploy after the storm in order to progress with recovery work as quickly and efficiently as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
A March 2011 report published by Northern Sky Research (NSR) notes that a there is a continuing upward trend in overall oil and gas exploration and production. The report, Oil and Gas via Satellite, also found that companies are looking to streamline their businesses by putting in place monitoring facilities.<\/p>\n
The necessity of digital oil-field tracking capabilities was on full display during the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. With oil leaking into the Gulf, threatening wildlife, habitat and people\u2019s livelihoods, geographic information system (GIS) technology provider ESRI was called in to provide mobile satcom to support analysis efforts.<\/p>\n
Equipped with GPS digital cameras, field data capture software and a Hughes 9201 Inmarsat BGAN terminal, ESRI\u2019s Industry Specialist of Wildland Fire and Mobile Tom Patterson joined public safety response teams on a tour of the beaches and marshlands that were directly in the path of the incoming oil slick. \u201cOur mission was to map the oil barricades, including sand levees and booms. Because there is no cellular connectivity in much of the deployment zone, the field teams used BGAN to synchronize data with our server back in Redlands, California,\u201d says Patterson. \u201cThe result is incident command staff can view updates as they see the impact of sensitive habitats and wildlife. When you\u2019re at the \u2018end of the world\u2019 it\u2019s good to have reliable communications to enhance emergency operations management. I\u2019ve spent 30 years in search and rescue and wildfire suppression. There were \u2018numerous times\u2019 when BGAN would have made a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Oil and gas companies are potentially lucrative customers for satellite-based communications. However, while demand for services like HD video on oil rigs is good news, the competition from fiber based networks is not and makes for an intriguing market for satellite players. The modern offshore oil rig is much more than a giant hulk of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84018"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}