BGAN from Inmarsat

Voice and broadband data for the oil & gas industry

Oil & gas imperatives

Despite the growing popularity of alternative energy sources, oil, gas, and other hydrocarbons continue as the mainstays of the world's energy market.As the cost and difficulty of extraction increase, oil & gas companies are looking for new solutions to help them work more efficiently, enabling them to bring oil and gas fields onstream quicker and at a lower cost. Inmarsat BGAN can play a significant part in this process by supporting more efficient communication, improved productivity and better decision making.

Remote communications - the status quo

Integrated global players such as Chevron, Shell and Total operate in both the upstream and downstream sides of the sector, so reducing time to oil is a key factor driving their business. Everyone involved in the process, including contractors, is under pressure to reduce costs and increase profits by finding, assessing and exploiting reserves, to get the product to the consumer more quickly and efficiently. Improving the effectiveness of communications, particularly upstream, is an acknowledged way of reducing time to oil. 

Supporting individuals and small teams in the field

Typical users in the early stages of upstream operations will be individual geoscientists or small teams searching for new reserves on behalf of the majors. They are likely to be continually on the move as they explore blocks of several hectares as quickly and efficiently as possible before shifting to a new area. They must be mobile, so they can't carry bulky equipment to analyse their samples in the field, and will need to send raw data back to base for advanced analysis. The quicker they can get the data back, the quicker they will know where best to explore next.

BGAN will help them work faster and more efficiently by enabling them to speak to colleagues back at base, or elsewhere in the field. And it will give them a guaranteed broadband data capability for sending back progress reports, photographs, images, video and other data needed for immediate analysis.

Sometimes a mobile team will need to remain static for a few days to investigate a site in more detail. BGAN will enable it to set up a temporary communications hub immediately, supporting all the applications needed for an 'office' in the field, including voice, email, fax, web browsing, remote access to company networks and videoconferencing.

Supporting large-scale operations in the field

When developing a new oil or gas field, the lead company will often deploy hundreds of workers and contractors during the exploration, design and construction phases. While many of these people will be concentrated at one or more key sites, a lot may be spread over a wide area deployed on tasks such as supplies and logistics, maintaining vehicles and other equipment, and project management. Fast and reliable communications between these people is vital because delays in communication can cause the work of the entire field to be suspended if a vital piece of equipment - for instance, a drill bit - or information has not been received.

BGAN is a powerful voice and data tool in its own right, so oil & gas companies can use it for a wide range of business tasks to support large-scale multi-user operations in the field. These include sending progress reports and images, planning work schedules and contacting suppliers and contractors by phone, email or videoconference.

Maintaining health & safety on site

Oil & gas companies rightly consider health & safety to be a priority, and the insurance premiums they pay for work in the field reflect this. BGAN can help them comply with strict health & 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 needed, and in urgent cases access telemedicine services over the internet. BGAN's capability to transmit live video means that off-site doctors, who may be in another country, can quickly see and assess injuries. These reliable communications links will help companies comply with high standards of health & safety for their workers.

Asset monitoring, inspection and maintenance

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 faults, or report on the progress of repairs, can use it as their primary means of voice and data communication. They can keep in constant contact with head office, and with other colleagues in the field who also have BGAN, using it to send emails, data, images, video and diagrams. They can also connect peripheral devices such as well and pipeline monitors to BGAN to transfer data back to base, quickly and efficiently, and run data evaluation models and CAD programmes on their laptops.

BGAN works well with industry-standard well and pipeline monitors and sensors, and with a range of audio/visual devices that have been optimised for remote use with the service, including WiFi webcams and dedicated LAN cameras.

Offshore and downstream operations

BGAN offers the same flexibility and functionality for oil & gas companies operating offshore, and will function as effectively on fixed rigs and platforms as it does on land. However, on vessels and platforms in transit, companies may choose to deploy FleetBroadband. This is the maritime equivalent of BGAN and has been optimised by Inmarsat for use at sea.

BGAN also has a role to play in the oil & gas downstream, especially in field sales and supporting supply chain operations. Mobile workers in sales or distribution can use BGAN to monitor supply networks and pricing information and share data with colleagues as they travel.

Summary

Oil & gas companies can use BGAN's unique mobile voice and data capabilities to help their workers operate more productively in the field - improving efficiency, and reducing lead times and 'time to oil'. Mobile exploration teams can use it to start working and reporting test results immediately from the field, saving time and money through the rapid transfer of data for analysis. During the early stages of developing a major new field, BGAN will provide voice, data and 'office' communications, and will serve as a flexible and reliable back-up once permanent communications have been installed. It is ideal for enhancing the operational efficiency of large and disparate workforces, and has a significant role to play in the inspection and maintenance of established wells and pipelines in remote area.