Satellite Service Providers and the Battle for the Oilfield Customer - Land rigs
From INVESaTWIKI
On Shore, Land Rig Operations
With 500 land rigs currently active
outside of the U.S., there is
considerable opportunity for
satellite service providers. However,
land rig communication has its own
distinct set of requirements. Unlike
the Offshore market, crews are
smaller, usually fifty or less,
movement of the rigs is more
frequent and communications traffic
tends to be limited to 2-4 voice
circuits and e-mails containing daily
drilling statistics, the traditional
“morning report.” Typically, the
requirements for land rig operations
have been met by
narrow band,
VSAT Point-to-Point links.
Introduction of
iDirect and
Inmarsat’s
Regional BGAN
service will offer
the land rig
operator new
opportunities for
cost savings and
convenience.
For workover and other short-term
drilling related operations,
Inmarsat’s new Regional BGAN is a
likely alternative to VSAT. With
Regional BGAN, antenna pointing
is vastly simplified. A non-technical
individual can easily and rapidly
deploy the small, notebook-sized
terminal, point it to the satellite and
initiate communication. While the
service is convenient, current
pricing structures make the service
most suitable for e-mail and
occasional medium bandwidth data
transmission. Regional BGAN
currently provides bi-directional
service across Europe, northern to
central Africa, the Middle East,
several CIS countries and east
across India. The
service will be
upgraded to 400 Kbs in
2005 and will be offered
globally in that same
time frame. For land rig
operations where
mobility is limited to a
few moves per/year
and bandwidth
requirements are
greater (typically, deep
drilling, exploratory
work), the iDirect
platform is a potential
solution. Since most
FEATURES
transmission in this application is
“bursty,” many rigs can share
bandwidth thereby elimination the
need for many individual Point-to-
Point SCPC links. [1]
References
[1] Satmagazine.com - January 2004
Satellite Service Providers and the Battle for the Oilfield Customer
