The need for effective communication systems on offshore facilities has grown in recent years in parallel with the advances in technology in the communications field. As internet speeds increased, bandwidth grew and IP telephony became mainstream onshore, expectations on offshore rigs and vessels also increased.
For example, workers on an offshore rig away from their families no longer see it adequate to talk to their loved ones via regular telephone calls, now Skype and other video conferencing services are so widely used elsewhere. Luckily for them, companies which provide communications services have done a fantastic job of keeping up with demand.
“The amount of data being requested has consistently gone up 20 – 30% over the last three or four years, and we expect this trend to continue,” explains Keith Johnson, president, energy solution, Harris CapRock.
“More and more information continues to be sent from the remote site back to the home office.”
This increase in data is not just evident in rigs. Vessels also have a big need for data to be sent to them and again the amounts in question are steadily increasing.
“I would make a reference to what has happened onshore over the last 20 years where in the beginning with the analogue and IDSN modems, Internet was slow but users were not used to anything else so accepted it,” says Tore Morten Olsen, CEO of Marlink.
“But as cable and DSL and more advanced technologies have been introduced to the market, the patience in internet users in general is becoming lower and lower and expectations for bandwidth is increasing significantly.”
Welfare state
The reasons for this increase in the amount of bandwidth are numerous. But the main two are crew welfare, with crew members and workers keen to stay in touch with people onshore, and increasingly sophisticated ways of doing business.
“Certainly welfare has been a big major push in that area,” says Kevin Thorley, CEO Middle East, Hermes Datacomms. “People are expecting to be able to Skype people now and have video conferences with headquarters or have voice calls whenever they want. I think there’s a massive thirst for bandwidth and certainly we’ve seen over the last ten years.”
Harris CapRock has also seen a focus on welfare based solutions. “Crew morale and welfare are growing more and more important for offshore operations, so many of the fastest growing solutions for the oil and gas market are designed to address these needs.
For example, Harris CapRock has introduced Crew Infotainment and telemedicine solutions to maintain heightened morale and connectivity, and to address emergency medical situations with more efficiency than ever before,” reveals Johnson.
He adds that Infotainment and digital signage solutions serve the corporate communications process by creating platforms for training, news and messaging to turn rigs into extensions of the corporate headquarters.
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Office management
Demands of a modern working office have also made an impact on this. “With the desire to have more information managed from the office, there has been an investment made to implement automation at the remote site to allow data to be collected and sent back to the corporate office,” comments Johnson.
One of the technologies most used is VSAT, or very small aperture terminal, but there are other methods as well. “Other than satellite services, we use fibre or we use microwaves, it depends on which is the most cost effective way of getting information into these fields,” says Thorley.
“What we’re tending to move our business to if you look at the field, is service, it doesn’t matter if it’s wireless, VSAT or fibre, it’s a service. But VSAT typically is the easiest way of getting comms to somewhere than trying to get the fibre connections out there.”
For offshore facilities, this increase in data is an extra expense in times where costs need to be kept to a minimum regardless of what industry a company is working in. The good news is that some of the equipment used in the delivery of data to offshore rigs and vessels has been driven down in price.
“Over the last two to three years the cost of VSAT solutions or VSAT products in general has been reduced rather significantly.
This is primarily on those standardised VSAT products where the product cost is kept as efficient as possible by having everything pre-defined and thereby benefitting from a streamlined production process,” reveals Olsen. As well as existing technology being cheaper, there are also ways to get the most out of the equipment a firm has.
“I think there is certainly a driver to get costs down and what we’re looking at doing is obviously putting equipment like Riverbed on the end of equipment to reduce the cost of sending information. There’s more technology out there which allows us to cut the costs of delivering data and voice,” states Thorley.
He adds that Hermes uses compression technology in order to reduce the amount of data being transmitted at one time, maximising the bandwidth available and making it cheaper to send more information.
The business model of Hermes is set up in order to help control costs of offshore communication for companies in the oil and gas and other sectors, while keeping management strain off operators. “The business model we’re trying to do is basically a rented service now,” says Thorley.
“We take that cost of management away from the customer which I think is very important in today’s world because they’re concentrating on getting the oil out of the ground and communications is is a vital part of that but the cost of buying equipment and having assets that may not be used again in the future is something they’re slowly getting away from,” he adds.
Where oil and gas vessels are concerned, there are other ways to make sure costs are being brought under control. “For the offshore segment, providing resilient, high quality services is key in order for satellite communications providers to deliver according to the standards and requirements of their customers,” explains Olsen.
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Managing costs
Each company has its own approach to managing the cost of services and or assets. The most typical model is for a service provider to offer communications services directly to each remote, followed by the customer managing these sites and the budget on a regional basis. However, there are some variations.
“For companies with large, global fleets, they often prefer a centralised approach by managing the services at the headquarter office. These services include satellite, other wireless services, terrestrial services for backhaul to remote, land-based offices, and related applications,” says Johnson.
There is no doubt either that the purpose of offshore communications has altered slightly over the years. Olsen reports that in the early 2000s, on board satcomms were used to establish more efficient operations between the offshore vessels, headquarters and operators.
“This is still the focus today, but even more focus on return on investment. One example is the increased use of remote support from shore to the vessel, but also an increasing focus on how to utilise communications to increase the vessels performance,” he reveals. Offshore communications are used in several different sectors.
Tourism and logistics are the two biggest aside from oil and gas, and this means there are specific solutions available to the energy industry, mainly due to the complex needs of companies working in this sector.
“Standardised VSAT services probably account for about 80% of offerings of the overall market, and they are ideal for operators who want X amount of bandwidth and services, and pick their configurations from a fixed menu.
We offer standardised services primarily to the transportation, fishing and leisure market, but, for the offshore sector, there tend to be far more advanced communications requirements,” says Olsen.
“It’s not often the case that a ship owner just requires two to four fixed lines for voice, for instance – they often need far more, and some of the standardised packages cannot accommodate the communications requirement or service levels needed.
VSAT is a significant investment; ship owners won’t make a snap purchasing decision from one provider, but will hunt around various deals and work out which solution best suits their needs,” he adds.
The offshore communications market is forever getting more complex as demand is increased.
Add to this a global economic downturn and the firms involved in the sector have had some challenging times offering companies more for less.
But communications are vital to any offshore oil and gas operation in two of the most major ways possible. Firstly it’s needed to keep members of staff happy, and secondly to keep the business running efficiently. For now at least, technology is keeping up with demand in this area, and those offshore will be hoping it stays that way.
