1. 36 | SatellitePro | March 2012
SatVertical: Oil & gas
Thebandwidthdemandsurge
With the exploration and drilling companies seeking to remotely manage their sites, the oil and gas sector
is experiencing a burgeoning demand for high-bandwidth applications, says Keith Johnson, president,
energy division, Harris Caprock
The growing need for bandwidth in the
energy sector
“I have been in this industry for 25 years
and I can see that communications has
gone through an amazing transformation
even within the satellite industry. If we go
back even 10 years, a typical site required
256Kbs at the most. But now, many of our
offshore facilities require 2Mbps, and some
of them go up to 4Mbps. So there has been
an exponential growth in the amount of
data that is generated in some of the more
complex facilities.
“There are advances in the way
communication is managed both at the
remote site and on the satellite, so you
get more efficiency and faster throughput.
More recently, in terms of a leap change
is the desire among the oil and gas and
drilling companies to remotely automate
and manage their sites. This requirement
has grown tremendously over the last
several years.
“They are putting more advanced
technology on the rig, so that they don’t
need to have as many people on the
site. These new applications that allow
for remote monitoring, require more
bandwidth. Sometimes on a deepwater
platform, the drilling companies have to
invest up to a million dollars or in excess of
that, in additional equipment, to allow for
this remote management capability.
“The other change that has taken
place is in the realm of crew morale. There
has been a real push to provide basic
connectivity out of these remote sites.
It is no longer about just making a call.
Employees want to Skype and so on, and
providing these services to the entire crew
becomes bandwidth demanding. It is a
constant challenge for these companies

2. March 2012 | SatellitePro | 37
Bandwidth demand
currently on a typical
rig site2
to invest in additional bandwidth to ensure
high crew morale and thus retain personnel.
“More recently, because of the Gulf
of Mexico incident, safety requirements
are becoming even more rigorous. Data
replication and storage of critical data is
becoming a strong requirement among
oil exploration companies. We anticipate
that other regions and governments will
adopt these new regulations that require
the rig operators to undertake more
sophisticated management of data that
is produced at the site and are required
to store the data in such a manner that
it can be retrieved when called for.
While there will be an improvement in
safety standards, it might become cost
prohibitive for some of these companies
to operate in this region.
“We are working with our customers on
how best they can store and manage their
data, including working on a system of
metadata tagging for streamlined retrieval
of data. Part of the question going forward
will relate to the quantum of data storage
the government is going to require the oil
exploration companies to sustain – will
it be data gathered over the previous
week, or year? Regulations are still
being developed and we don’t have firm
answers yet.”
innovative solutions deployed on rigs
“The oil and gas customer does use
cloud computing, but we don’t see the
technology being used extensively when
it comes to real-time drilling applications.
Today we see it being used for mail
services, and for disaster recovery
backup systems. We have a cloud
computing and cyber security centre and
we have some pilots under way for our
drilling customers. They are trying to see
how best to use the technology.
“One of the current trends is when
there is a large concentration of personnel
on a facility that requires a high amount
of bandwidth, submarine fibre is being
deployed. This solution is being driven
by bandwidth demands on deep water
facilities and needs to be justified in terms
of usage. The goal is to reduce personnel
and to be able to manage and monitor
these facilities remotely. We own and
operate submarine fibre networks and
currently it is a niche sector. If we look at
the industry at large, satellite is still the
predominant provider and even in the
cases where submarine fibre is deployed,
VSAT is used as backup in case there is a
break in the fibre.
“From a terrestrial standpoint, fibre
is inevitable – but we are seeing an
interesting trend along West Africa. Though
the major cities have fibre, the challenge
remains with the ‘last mile’. Due to security
reasons or other factors, companies are
not able to get fibre to their facilities. So
satellite is an option because companies
will then have the antenna within their
facility and that lends a greater degree of
comfort. So despite the expansion of fibre
networks, there will always be a demand
for satellite-based communications.
“Another trend that we are excited about
is remote telemedicine. We are partnering
with companies to provide that. In Brazil,
for instance, every rig in the coming years
will require remote telemedicine facilities.
“In remote areas, it is challenging to
provide a high level of service at a low
cost. These are difficult-to-reach locations
and you need people and spares available
to ensure uptime. Though communications
systems on a rig is a critical differentiator
in terms of working efficiency of the rig,
the outlay, even if you include all the IT
infrastructure and satellite capacity usage,
is probably less than 1% of what it costs
to operate a deep water facility that
would have close to a billion dollars in
equipment.”
Growth in the MENA region
“We definitely see the MENA region as a
growth area. I would estimate that MENA
accounts for 30 to 40% of our energy
revenues. We work closely with satellite
operators to ensure we have capacity. We
also track drilling activities. Like we say
in the industry, it is the exploration and
production companies that decide where
the next drilling operation is going to take
place next. Until they decide to spend
money on exploration, the rest of us are
really in a holding position. We grew at
12% last year and we see those trends
sustaining in the future.
“This is an exciting time to be in the
industry with the emergence of Ka-band
and new cost-effective technologies.
We have been told that we are probably
the largest bandwidth provider in our
segment. We are engaged with virtually
every satellite operator and while we have
a tremendous amount of cost associated
with satellite bandwidth, we have a
dedicated team to manage and monitor
our satellite capacity and to ensure that
our customers have what they need to
continue to operate.” PRO
Keith Johnson, president, energy division,
Harris Caprock
“They [exploration and drilling companies] are putting more
advanced technology on the rig, so that they don’t need to have
as many people on the site. These new applications that allow for
remote monitoring, require more bandwidth”