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Fiber - Oil & Gas
Looking to provide high speed, high bandwidth communications to offshore oil and gas companies, Ocean Fiber of Houston, Texas is about to install the first sub sea telecommunications fiber optic network in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The unrivaled fiber optic cable network, called Gulf FiberNet, will be used to significantly improve video, voice and data services to the oil and gas industry and to enable the use of more sophisticated technologies commonly used onshore. The network will primarily focus on deepwater developments in the Gulf of Mexico, but Ocean Fiber is also exploring opportunities to provide fiber optic communication services to the shelf infrastructure of the Gulf as well.
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The proposed network boasts the highest levels of security and reliability, ensuring minimum down time, thanks to its state-of-the-art fiber design and installation technology. The network's design allows it to offer several times the bandwidth currently used throughout the entire Gulf of Mexico communications industry in hopes of improving the productivity of these companies and to help maintain their compliance with regulatory agencies. Ocean Fiber is reviewing construction designs that could take the network terrestrially through cities such as New Orleans, Lafayette, Lake Charles and Houston, and the network is scheduled for completion in 2005.
Tom Ayars, vice president of sales and marketing for the project, says Gulf FiberNet will drastically improve basic communications offshore, but the real bonus is that the fiber network will allow operators to adopt new technologies, such as real-time operations that focus on enhancing the discovery and production of oil and gas.
Through these reliable fiber connections, collaborative decisions through video, voice and data transfers will not only happen faster, but thanks to the fiber's efficiency, it gives them the very optimum way to operate, potentially saving millions of dollars in the process. Under current methods of communication, offshore facilities use either microwave or satellite; both systems get the job done but they have inherent issues such as reliability, maintenance cost or latency, Ayars says.
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Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a well-known firm that specializes in insights into the energy future, says the impact of fiber coupled with other new technologies has put the industry on the verge of the "digital oil field of the future." The fiber optic network could potentially link up with other fiber networks in the area, allowing some engineers and other oil and gas employees to work from the remote locations rather than traveling to offshore sites.
The use of fiber could even be used to promote safety by providing medical assistance through fiber video relays when severe injuries occur several miles away from shore, and the extensive network will also help out government efforts in areas such as homeland security and weather forecasts.
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