At permanent installationsVSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite systems are a popular way of providing voice and data services for remote installations. Howeverthey have several widely recognised drawbacks. Reliability is an issueas while VSAT will generally work well in clear conditionslike other high-frequency satellite systemsit can be disrupted by heavy rain. It’s also not always possible to rely on VSAT for guaranteed communications from a permanent installation as some countries such as Sudanand Yeman do not permit its use within their borders. Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) terminals are highly portablequick to set up and easy to useand provide reliable voice and data communications almost anywhere in the world. Typical users in the early stages of upstream operation will be individual geoscientists or small teams exploring a grant or looking for new reserves on behalf of the majors. They are likely to be continually on the move as they explore blocks of several hectares. They must be mobileso they can’t carry bulky equipment to analyse their samples in the field and will need to send raw data they back to base for advanced testing. The quicker they can get the data back the quicker they will know where best to explore next. BGAN enables them to speak at any time to colleagues back at baseor elsewhere in the field. And it will give them a guaranteed broadband data capability for sending back progress reports and photographs and data for immediate analysis. BGAN can be used to set up a temporary communications hub immediatelysupporting all the applications needed for an ‘office’ in the fieldincluding voiceemailfaxweb browsingremote access to company networks and video- conferencing. Once completeBGAN provides reliable back-up and mobile off-field communications for a variety of workers. For instanceexecutives and VIPs can carry BGAN as they travel in the fieldusing it to communicate and work almost as effectively as they would from their officeswith access to corporate networks through VPN systems such as Citrix. BGAN can also be used as a mobile supplement for voice and data communications on siteand in the surrounding country when team members travel off field. BGAN is a powerful voice and data tool in its own rightso oil and gas companies can use it for a wide range of business tasks to support large-scale operations in the field. These include sending progress reports and photographsplanning work schedules and contacting suppliers and contractors by phoneemail or videoconference. BGAN supports several third-party videoconferencing packageswhich have been optimised for BGAN. Companies can also run many of the enterprise systems available at their main offices for tasks such as scheduling and dispatchingmaintaining asset databases and checking engineering standards. VPNs (virtual private networks) can be accessed easily and securely over BGAN. Oil and gas companies rightly consider health and safety to be a priorityand the insurance premiums they pay for work in the field reflect this. BGAN can help them comply with strict health and safety regulations by ensuring the site is always equipped with a guaranteed voice and data link to the outside world. This means they can summon medical help immediately if neededand in urgent cases access telemedicine services over the internet. BGAN’s capability to transmit live video means that doctors off-sitewho may be in another countrycan quickly see and assess injuries. These reliable communications links will help companies comply with high standards of health & safety for their workers. And by showing insurers that every reasonable precaution is being taken they may contribute to lower premiums. BGAN can play an important role after new fields have come onstream. Certification engineers and inspectors who travel between remote installations and along pipelines to check for faultsor report on the progress of repairscan use it as their primary means of voice and data communication. They can keep in constant contact with head officeand with other colleagues in the field who also have BGANusing it to send emailsdataphotosvideo and diagrams. They can also connect peripheral devices such as well and pipeline monitors to BGAN to transfer data back to baseand run data evaluation models and CAD programmes on their laptopsusing BGAN to feed the results back to base quickly and efficiently. At unmanned sitesBGAN can provide an ‘intelligent gateway’ for data gathered by sensors and actuatorsenabling near real-time status reporting on wellsrigs and other equipment in the field through SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) applications. BGAN can transmit data automatically via satellite to remote asset-monitoring serverswhere they will be processed by back-end systems. Remote monitoring backhaul is already widely available over satellite links such as Inmarsat D+ and low-speed VSATand over GSM or GPRS. HoweverBGAN's broadband capabilityand support for services such as live colour videomake it a far more powerful and flexible option. This flexibility extends to optimising the time that BGAN remains connected to the internet to maintain cost-effectiveness and reduce power consumption. A typical ‘data-logging’ set-up for a remote site would use the BGAN terminal to open a Standard IP connection only when needed to push data over the internet to the central HQ data-logging centre. BGAN also has a role to play in the oil and gas downstreamespecially in field sales and to support supply chain operations. Mobile workers in sales or distribution can use BGAN to monitor supply networks and pricing information and to share data with colleagues as they travel. This will support improved decision making and downstream asset managementand help companies to manage their supply chains and coordinate deliveries more efficientlymaking BGAN a complete mobile communications solution for the oil and gas industry and beyond.
Drew Brandy is with Inmarsat plcLondonUK. www.inmarsat.com
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