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VSAT Applications for Oil/Gas Drilling
and Seismic Explorations A.N. Al-Baharna Communications Engineering and Technical Support Department Satellite Engineering Group SAUDI ARAMCO West Park #3121, Dhahran 31311, Saudi Arabia Email:baharnan@aramco.com.sa Abstract This paper will explore the
advantages of Satellite-based communications particularly VSAT for the Oil and Gas Industry. Within
the energy industry, there are numerous applications for VSAT. The shared common factor for all of
these applications is cost effectiveness and flexibility. The Oil and Gas operations today
are competing aggressively with time. The less time it takes to explore and drill for oil
and gas reservoirs the more savings for the company. VSAT technology has helped leverage the
oil and gas industry by providing a common medium to transport voice, video and data from
anywhere to anywhere. Hence, VSAT
provides a scalable, cost-effective and flexible network assisting the Oil and Gas
Industry daily operation needs. Keywords: VSAT, Satellite, Leverage, Single medium,
Cost-effectiveness 1 Introduction As Oil exploration, drilling and
production is expanding throughout the world, Oil and Gas companies are seeking new
information transport solutions to enhance efficiencies and lower costs [2]. In addition
to the traditional pipelines that stretch thousands of miles across the ocean floors and
the continental terrains, Oil and Gas companies are continuously turning to Communication
Pipelines that reach thousands of miles up in the sky and through which flow billions of
bits and bytes of communications traffic. Current and future needs exceed
simple voice connectivity. Modern exploration and drilling operations generate significant
volumes of complex data and telemetry that need to be transmitted in a timely fashion to
decision makers at the home office [2]. Since wired fiber infrastructure is not available
in most frontiers the communications infrastructure must be wireless or satellite-based.
VSAT stands for “Very Small
Aperture Terminal and refers to a ground station or earth terminal (typically between
1-2.4m), which is part of a network providing communication services via satellite.
I- VSAT Components
III- VSAT Configurations VSAT systems may be operated in a STAR
configuration or a MESH configuration. Alternatively a VSAT network can have a hybrid network of
STAR and MESH by mixing both architectures within one VSAT network. IV- VSAT Access Technologies 3 VSAT Applications
I- Drilling
VSAT allows for the real-time
transmission of drilling data vital to the drilling operations. The rigs
managers/supervisors can keep track of the activities of various rigs from which they can
analyse data immediately to recommend changes, identify potential operational and safety
hazards or even request further information on the drilled Oil/Gas well [3]. Furthermore, the immediate
connectivity of VSAT will save a lot
of time and money on the drilling operation. Typically the operation of the Rig costs
$20,000/day for an onshore rig and $50,000/day for the off-shore Rig. By utilizing LWD
(Logging While Drilling) mechanism in conjunction with the VSAT technology the Rigs can expedite the
drilling operation and achieve more productivity of the reservoirs. Hence, the shorter the
drill period the more money is saved for the company. In addition to that, the reliable
communications of VSAT makes it more
adequate for the safety regulations of the drilling operations. Figure 2. VSAT application for Drilling. II-
SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) For Oil and Gas Wells Oil and Gas companies require monitoring of their pipelines and wells to ensure the safety operation of these wells and pipelines and also to anticipate abnormal conditions that might lead to disasters. These metering and control points are typically in remote areas with limited access to power and any communications infrastructure. This is one of the challenges that faces the energy industry today, especially Oil and Gas companies that have thousands of oil and gas wells scattered in remote areas [3]. This challenge is overcome today
by several techniques. One of those techniques is using hybrid technology of Satellite and
terrestrial radio (Figure. 3). Because each well needs an average data rate of 9.6 Kb/s,
installing a VSAT terminal at each
well is not cost-effective at the time being ( Once the price of the VSAT terminals drops, the installation of
a VSAT terminal at each well can be
revisited). Therefore, oil and gas wells are fixed with radio communications to
communicate with a single base station (a single base station can take on 150-200 nodes)
which is interfaced with a VSAT
terminal that will transfer the collected data from all the wells at the base station to
the corporate headquarters. By utilizing this technique the VSAT terminal is advantageous because the
base-station does not require multiple repeater hops or thousands of fiber/copper reels
and regenerators to replicate the data to the corporate headquarters. Also, by providing
such a solution means that the data center resides within the corporate premises. This
offers more inherent security. III- Seismic
Explorations Onshore As the petroleum industry moves
to explore new prospects that are more remote, the need for an intelligent, flexible and
high-performance communications infrastructure to support remote operations has become
more critical. The oil industry spends between $60 and $65 billion each year on oil
exploration [2]. The oil industry does not typically conduct oil
exploration and production activities near population centers. As a result the best
solution is to deploy satellite services. For onshore explorations, the
seismic crews need to communicate with their superiors at the headquarters to update
drawings, send morning reports and ship seismic data for analysis. Today the existing VSAT terminals in the market can ship the
large seismic files that reach up to gigabytes. However, it depends on the access scheme
to the satellite system. On of the techniques utilized today is shipping the terabytes
data through high speed terminals that communicate with on-board processing satellites
that relay the data to the headquarters. This technique is more popular with the offshore
seismic explorations. Offshore: Similar to the onshore
applications, the offshore crews require to communicate with their superiors and also to
transfer the large seismic files. The most challenging of the offshore data transfer
challenges involves moving seismic data from moving vessels while they are on the
prospective exploration site. To support such explorations, NASA has a fleet of seven
satellites called the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) in geo-synchronous orbit
with worldwide up-link coverage. The data is received at the NASA receiving station at
White Sands Center. These satellites are being
utilized by the SeismicStar system. The SeismicStar system is a complete turnkey service
consisting of all equipment, maintenance , licenses, fiber connectivity, training to
deliver raw uncompressed marine 3-D seismic data to a land processing center located
anywhere in the world. The SeismicStar system consists
of a shipboard satellite receiving station and transmission elements, capable of
transmitting data at 311 Mb/s [5]. A dayÂ’s 3-D seismic production of 150 Gigabytes
of data can be transmitted and received in the U.S in 81 minutes [5]. Onboard components
include a motion stabilized 2.4 m antenna with radome, two 155 Mb/s modems, file and
communication servers, GPS, satellite phone, 1 Terabyte of RAID storage , associated
electronics and administrative software. Because of the unique design and
the very large bandwidth of the NASA TDRS satellites, the SeismicStar transmission is by
far the fastest commercial satellite capability in the world. The point to point
SeismicStar is over 3000 times faster than Inmarsat, which is the only other satellite
constellation with ocean coverage [5]. Figure 4. SeismicStar System. Early delivery of seismic data at
the client processing center can add substantial value to the client oil company. Value to
the oil company is derived mainly from the early delivery of the final displays , which
can cause earlier generation of drillable prospects and earlier realization of cash flows
associated with hydrocarbons production. These cash flows can be reinvested earlier, and
due to the time value of money, can add $2 to $4 million to an oil companyÂ’s value
for each 3-D survey delivered early [5].
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