The year 2005 promises to be an interesting time for those involved in providing communications services to offshore and remote E&P operations, including telecom companies, information technology integrators, and network service and solution providers. Keeping to the well-established practice of leveraging new communications technologies developed for broader commercial markets, these communications providers will begin to combine and implement new offerings to support the need for improved infrastructure and connectivity between increasingly automated business processes and operations.
One of the major US upstream information technology challenges will be the need for timelier financial reporting of oil and gas production and reserves computations. Sarbanes-Oxley compliance (in the US) and increased shareholder emphasis on transparency and accountability will drive companies to install data and communication solutions that enable more accurate financial snapshots.
Another telecom hotspot will be remote monitoring of “brown fields.” Given the ongoing field personnel resource constraints and new, relatively low-cost, wide area network (WAN) solutions, the market for remote monitoring and management systems could see substantial growth even in mature and marginal fields in the coming year. This need for continuous, cheap, reliable remote well monitoring will be met by innovative companies that are able to synthesize and integrate the best communications infrastructure solutions from the newest technologies.
The advent of improved communications satellite and lightwave networks and the practical deployment of advanced terrestrial radio technologies will offer explorationists and operators improved performance at lower costs, enabling further opportunities for integrating upstream information technology applications. Some of the developments that will be of interest to offshore industry include:
• Launching the next-generation mobile communications spacecraft
• Expanding coverage and adopting broadband IP-based very small aperture terminal (VSAT) systems
• Wireless mesh and point-to-multipoint nets based on the IEEE 802.15.4 “ZigBee” and 802.16 “Wi-Max” standards.
A growing number of broadband VSAT satellite service providers offer better performance, functionality, and geographical coverage. For example, Schlumberger offers a suite of security-optimized, integrated equipment and services. In addition, Thailand-based IPStar offers wideband coverage across much of eastern Asia. There has been an increase in satcom gateways with interoperable, open-standard, direct video broadcast-return channel over satellite hubs.
In the near future, there will be new entrants in the full-mesh VSAT network systems for intra-regional communications. In North America, TeleSat Canada’s Anik F2 will relay on ultra-wideband data communications over its Ka band transponder, echoing the petroleum industry-sponsored Project Aries of the mid-1990s.
Inmarsat, a mainstay of offshore and land remote telecoms, and the world’s longest running mobile satellite operator, will launch its fourth-generation spacecraft. Scheduled for commercial operation toward year-end, these will be the largest, most powerful communications satellites ever put into orbit. Communicating with ultra-small form factor remote terminals, the new broadband global area network promises a step-change in price and performance compared to Inmarsat’s pioneering early services.
One of the more interesting prospects for next-generation satcoms is the potential to embed low-cost satcom terminals with sensor-networked subsystems. Manufacturers of offshore equipment, such as power systems, mud pumps, and top drives, could continuously monitor performance using predictive analysis applications, extending the benefits of condition-based maintenance to offshore drilling and production operations.
In the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea, several companies are extending submarine fiber-optic communications to major production platforms and exploration drilling sites. Norway, in particular, is hedging its offshore production automation program heavily on high-capacity lightwave links to consolidated, onshore operations and computing centers.
Wireless or radio local area network technologies are expected to peak on the hi-tech hyperbole (and visibility) curve next year. Providing the connectivity for “smart dust” sensor networks, these technologies are a potentially significant new breakthrough toward realizing the i-field concept. The self-organizing, ad-hoc, mesh network architecture developed by the ZigBee Alliance and promoted by the Wireless Industrial Network Association could prove to be a significant new component of offshore IT infrastructure beginning in 2005. The Wi-Max standard may also gain some traction in remote oilfield operations, with the ability to link multiple data collection points over at distances approaching 50 km.
Planning communications infrastructure for future offshore or frontier projects will continue to be a challenge for those who work with high-value geoscientific and technical computing. Integrating business and operations processes, logistics, HSE, and a host of other mission-critical applications in the offshore energy environment is always a learning experience. And, as always, Moore’s Law and a lively competitive arena will ensure plenty of new product and service choices for end users.
Regis Laborie, Marketing Manager
Schlumberger Information Solutions,
Infrastructure Services
