Advances in satellite-based communications technology are impacting the worldwide offshore petroleum industry, particularly as exploration and production (E&P) operations continue moving into more remote, increasingly harsh marine environments.
Steadily growing offshore industry demand for satellite-based communications bandwidth, as well as for more exclusive access to it has created major changes in industrial telecommunications, says Randy Neck, marketing vice president of Houston-based CapRock Communications. Providers of such services must today have truly global capabilities, he said.
What’s more, he noted, offshore companies today demand an extremely high level of reliability from satellite equipment, as well as a quick-response support capability by service providers to assure that the equipment remains operable regardless of external forces, including disastrous weather events like gales and hurricanes.
CapRock works with a variety of satellite fleet operators around the world to provide global satellite coverage with service packages using geosynchronous satellites that provide either regional or partially global coverage across a longitudinal range that may comprise as much as a third of the earth’s surface. At any given time, CapRock employs more than twenty such satellites for worldwide service.
Only global coverage will do
“For the upstream offshore petroleum industry, clients demand a global communications reach,” said Neck. “Offshore drilling contractors, for instance, want more than regional coverage, since they mobilize their rigs to all points of the compass.”
Until relatively recently, however, offshore contractors often were faced with having to switch among satellite communications service providers - and change out onboard equipment - as they moved rigs around the world, Neck said.
“The trend among offshore customers today is to do business with a minimal set of global service providers who have the flexibility to operate wherever mobile rig locations dictate, and without having to change equipment out under what we call ‘forklift’ equipment upgrading,” he said. “This was a major challenge in the past.”
Another current trend, said Neck, is the demand by customers for service providers to give global support to their satellite equipment. This means establishing support centers from where technical service specialists can quickly access offshore facilities, regardless of location.
The expected onus on service/support
“Obviously, we love to say that once we put the equipment out there, it always works, never fails, etc.” he noted. “But that’s a stretch for anybody in this business, including us. So, customers expect us to be able to dispatch the necessary expertise to handle support and service functions. We decided early on that service/support expertise be placed physically in strategic world areas.”
The company operates 10 operations and support centers around the world-at its four main gateway teleports in Houston, Aberdeen, Scotland, Macaé, Brazil and Jakarta, Indonesia, and at regional centers in New Orleans, La., Lafayette, La., Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Luanda, Angola, and Oslo, Norway.
Dedicated private lines interconnect the four satellite teleports, said Neck. Each teleport also connects the Internet backbone to provide enhanced features such as offshore Internet access, email services, corporate VPNs, and other satellite-borne communications services.
According to Neck, the company uses its IPxpress virtual networking architecture to enable secure portability of customer data and applications across any site in the CapRock network. With it, customers can move from one CapRock location to the next and their applications, IP addresses and even VOIP telephone numbers will “follow” them to the new location. It also employs latest advances in multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) technology to provide secure segregation and correct routing of customer data traffic, he said.
What’s more, regular review of overall traffic loading allows company technicians at satellite gateways to optimize network performance for all customers. “From our advanced Network Management Systems in Houston and Aberdeen, we monitor all customer sites 24/7,” he said. “When service is required, we’re ready to dispatch technicians from the service/support center nearest to the issue.”
Beefing up disaster recovery systems
The enormous difficulties offshore interests encountered in recovering telecommunications links after the 2005 Gulf of Mexico hurricanes also resulted in major communications system upgrading for such contingencies, particularly for satellite-based systems, said Neck.
“When the storms damaged the existing terrestrial telecommunications infrastructure, offshore companies - and everybody else - relied heavily on portable, hand-held satellite telephones,” he recalled. “But such equipment operates over public access networks. So, the phones became immediately congested and users couldn’t put calls through.”
“In truth, what happened was that some companies factored using such public system satellite phones into their emergency planning, not realizing that everyone else had done so, as well,” he said, acknowledging that few had imagined the immensity of the “drain” on such systems created by disasters of the size of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Fortunately, said Neck, satellite service providers have since enhanced emergency communications products to include capabilities that do not rely on conventional satellite phone technology. CapRock, for example, already had embarked on improving its existing DR-250 and DR-550 emergency recovery systems prior to the storms. The post-storm need for more substantial systems became obvious, as well.
“The ‘DR’ stands for disaster recovery and the number indicates the data speed it offers,” he noted, adding that such multi-user systems include telephone, fax, real-time video, and broadband Internet access services, among others. The self-contained packages are available as stationary kits, mobile trailer-mounted units, or as stabilized systems for offshore customers. “Immediately after the storms, we shipped something like 140-150 such systems of all three types to companies engaged in recovery, both on land and offshore,” he said.
But because of the enormity of the damage to communications infrastructure in the area, CapRock now offers more powerful emergency equipment, including three larger products - the DR-1000, DR-1500 and DR-2000 systems - for even faster satellite communications speeds.
Providing one-stop, ‘agnostic’ services
Neck indicated that telecommunications competence among offshore companies is high, but that out of sheer necessity, individual customer experts find themselves having to be familiar with a wide variety of technologies.
“But, they also have the skills to understand the subtleties and nuances that are unique to our industry, and that’s where companies like CapRock, who have in-depth knowledge about satellite communications, can be of immense help. We can be the single point of contact and accountability. Customers don’t have to call a half-dozen companies to make sure all the right pieces of the puzzle are in place for communications to be reestablished.”
A bit of objectivity never hurts
Neck noted that while some companies who own satellites also market bandwidth, customers have the option of benefiting from a certain objectivity offered by service providers who lack their own spacecraft.
“We like to say CapRock delivers broadband to no man’s land,” he quipped.
“We are at our best delivering service to difficult-to-reach places. But because we are not affiliated with any specific satellite provider, we offer agnosticism in choosing specific satellite bandwidth. We have access to all the satellites, and to the different technologies that fit different applications. And we encourage customers to ask a lot of questions to make sure they get what they expect.”
For more information about CapRock Communications’ array of satellite communications products and services, contact them by phone at 832-668-2300; 832-668-2388 fax; or access the company web site atwww.caprock.com.
