STF Sept 04.pmd - Submarine Telecoms Forum

Transcription

FORUM
SubmarineTelecoms
An international forum for the expression of ideas and opinions
pertaining to the submarine telecoms industry
Issue 16
September 2004
Contents
Issue No 16
September 2004
Advertisers
Editors Exordium
3
CTC
38
NewsNow
4
Great Eastern Group
The Calendar
8
Lloyd’s Register
27
Emails to the Editor
9
Nexans
22
9
Submarine Telecoms Industry Survey
10
OFS
31
Executive Forum Olav Harald Nordgard
12
Offshore Communications 2004
48
Nobody Said It Was Easy Guy Arnos, Wayne Nielsen, Steve Wells
16
PTC
15
High Fibre Diet Vegard Briggar Larsen
23
STF Global Map
45
Bridging the Gap
32
STF Marketplace
34
Offshore Oil and Energy Systems Tom Davis
35
STF Reprints
21
Submarine Networks World
34
Vessel Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) for Oilfield Operations
Graham Cooper
39
The Cableships
42
Letter to a Friend Jean Devos
46
Diary
49
Tyco Telecommunications
WFN Strategies
4,5,6,7
30
2
Submarine Telecoms Forum is published bi-monthly by
WFN Strategies, L.L.C. The publication may not be
reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part,
without the permission of the publishers.
Submarine Telecoms Forum is an independent commercial publication, serving as a freely accessible forum
for professionals in industries connected with submarine
optical fibre technologies and techniques.
Liability: while every care is taken in preparation of
this publication, the publishers cannot be held responsible
for the accuracy of the information herein, or any errors
which may occur in advertising or editorial content, or
any consequence arising from any errors or omissions.
The publisher cannot be held responsible for any views
expressed by contributors, and the editor reserves the
right to edit any advertising or editorial material submitted
for publication.
© WFN Strategies L.L.C., 2004
Contributions are welcomed. Please forward to the
Managing Editor: Wayne F. Nielsen, WFN Strategies,
19471 Youngs Cliff Road, Suite 100, Potomac Falls,
Virginia 20165, USA.
Exordium
Welcome to the 16th edition of SubTel Forum at the end of another
summer, and the start of what we hope to be an interesting autumn in the
North.
It is only September and yet we are experiencing our 3rd hurricane of
the season in the Americas, and typhoons are also busy in the Pacific.
When the 1st hurricane hit last month, we heard reports of various Gulf
of Mexico platforms ‘battening down’ for the extreme weather, including
reducing, if not eliminating oilfield personnel from the oncoming storm.
With our 4th hurricane not a week away, I suppose it is timely to be
talking about offshore telecoms, and how we as an industry can better
support this vital world business. As such, we are pleased to be
presenting our Oil & Gas issue of STF, which will hopefully bring some
new insight into this evolving and growing market.
Olav Harold Nordgard discusses his company’s North Sea inter platform
system, and Guy Arnos, Steve Wells and yours truly share in some of the
diverse telecom issues facing platform owners. Vegard Larsen reveals a
high-count submarine cable family, while Natasha Kahn explains a
platform optical cable installation. Tom Davis outlines the industry’s
need for true high bandwidth systems, and Graham Cooper explains a
vessel automatic ID system for oilfield application. We also publish the
results of the annual submarine telecom industry survey,
and Jean Devos returns with his ever-insightful
observations.
Tel: +[1] 703 444-2527, Fax:+[1] 703 444-3047.
Email: [email protected]
Stay dry,
General Advertising
Tel: +[1] 703 444 2527
Wayne Nielsen
Designed and produced by Ted Breeze
3
Equant Signs IP VPN Deal with Arab Bank Group
Equant) and Jordan Data Communications (JDC)
have signed a $7 million IP VPN contract with Amman, Arab Bank Group to link 19 international sites.
A synopsis of current news items from NewsNow, the weekly news feed available on the
Submarine Telecoms Forum website.
www.subtelforum.com/NewsNow/
15_august_2004.htm
FLAG Appoints Fortin as VP, Sales and Marketing
Alcatel, Pirelli Complete Transaction
Cable Bahamas Announces Appointments
Alcatel and Pirelli announced that they have completed the transaction regarding their respective
submarine telecommunication businesses, which
was announced in May, after having received approval of Italian Antitrust Authorities.
Cable Bahamas Ltd. appoints G W Mackey, Al Jarrett
and GMacNab to its board and R W Pardy as CEO.
5_september_2004.htm
CTC Vessel Changes
British Broadband Prices Still Too High
According to Reuters, Britain’s broadband access
charges are still too high and need to be slashed
further to bring them in line with other nations, the
UK’s media and telecoms regulator said recently.
29_august_2004.htm
8_august_2004.htm
FLAG Telecom appoints Serge Fortin as Senior VP,
Sales and Marketing, FLAG Telecom.
15_august_2004.htm
FLAG Provides Frankfurt-Hong Kong STM-1
CTC ends its charter with DOF for the Skandi Neptune to pursue the conversion with another vessel.
FLAG Telecom has announced that TVI Connect has
awarded FLAG a contract to provide an STM-1 (155
Mbps) between Frankfurt and Hong Kong.
15_august_2004.htm
8_august_2004.htm
East African Telecom Project to Invite Tenders
FLAG Telecom Names CTO
Five companies will be invited to tender for a submarine cable on the East African coastline.
FLAG Telecom appoints Mathew Oommen as Chief
Technology Officer for FLAG Telecom.
1_august_2004.htm
25_july_2004.htm
4
Global Marine Digs Deeper With Trident
Global Marine Systems Limited announces the
launch of Trident, an innovative and revolutionary
grapnel that will improve the quality of cable capture during repair and maintenance work.
FLAG Telecom Wins Transpacific Contract
Global Crossing, TELMEX Announce Agreement
In what the companies say is one of the largest cash
deals this year, China Telecom has awarded FLAG
Telecom a multi-million dollar contract for multiple
STM-16s providing a substantial 30Gbits/s capacity between China and the United States.
Global Crossing and Teléfonos de México, Mexico’s largest carrier, have announced an agreement for bilateral voice interconnection, allowing
Global Crossing to send traffic to Mexico and
TELMEX to transport long distance voice traffic
to the US.
25_july_2004.htm
Global Crossing to Link Latin American, European
Research Networks
Global Marine and Jigsaw Container Logistics
Security Establish Partnership
Global Crossing is to provide a high-capacity network that will interconnect the research and educational (R&E) community in Latin America and open
the way for unprecedented levels of collaboration
with colleagues and institutions in Europe.
Global Marine Systems Limited’s Security Solutions
Group (SSG) and Jigsaw Container Logistics Security (JCLS) have entered into partnership to offer
a unique end-to-end (e2e) maritime supply chain
security service.
8_august_2004.htm
29_august_2004.htm
25_july_2004.htm
Global Marine Sold To Bridgehouse Marine Ltd
It was recently announced that an agreement for
the sale of Global Marine Systems Limited (Global
Marine), a subsidiary of Global Crossing Inc, has
been reached.
15_august_2004.htm
KMI Concludes Optical Networking Equipment
Market to Strengthen
The Optical Networking (ON) market will see double digit growth from 2004 through 2006, according
to a new study by KMI Research.
15_august_2004.htm
5
North Sea Oil Fields See Renewed Activity
Level 3 Wins Chunghwa Contract
Level 3 Communications, Inc. has announced that
it has signed a network services contract with
Chunghwa Telecom Global, the U.S.-based subsidiary of Chunghwa Telecom, the largest telecommunications operator in Taiwan.
Nexans And Telefónica Sign Contract For Supply Of
2M Kilometers Of Cable
Nexans announced today that it has signed a contract with Spain’s Telefónica for the supply of
telecoms cables amounting to about two million km
of insulated conductors over the next two years.
The U.K. offshore oil and gas industry reports evidence of renewed activity across the North Sea,
pointing to a pick-up in oil and gas project approvals, better than expected exploration activity, and
continuing strong investment since the beginning
of the year.
1_august_2004.htm
PLNC Upgrades Hawaii Network
15_august_2004.htm
Lloyd’s Register - Fairplay to exhibit at US
Maritime & Security 2004
Nexans awarded Ormen Lange Umbilical system
contract worth 47 million Euro
Lloyd’s Register – Fairplay staff will be demonstrating at at US Maritime & Security 2004, New York,
14-15 September the latest releases of electronic
and online products as well as new services.
Hydro on behalf of the Ormen Lange license group
recently awarded Nexans the umbilical system supply contract worth about 47 million euro including
options.
Pacific LightNet Communications (PLNC) has announced the successful Phase One completion of
its planned two-stage optical networking upgrade
of Hawaii’s largest inter-island fiber optic network.
PLNC, the only carrier with fiber connections to all
six Hawaiian Islands, deployed Movaz Network’s
RAY Product Suite of optical networking equipment
to provide end-to-end GigE and DWDM capacity to
Oahu, Maui, the “Big Island” of Hawaii, Molokai, Lanai
and Kauai.
1_august_2004.htm
25_july_2004.htm
6
TYCO Telecom To Provide High-Bandwidth Circuits
To Japan Telecom
Tyco Telecommunications recently announced a
multi-million dollar contract to provide several high
bandwidth circuits to Japan Telecom (JT).
Slow Growth forecast for Wireline Telecoms
TampNett to Install Cable Between Platforms
According to PRNewswire, wireline telecoms carriers will continue to be challenged throughout 2004,.
TampNett company is to lay a new cable between
the Grane and Oseberg platforms in the North Sea.
29_august_2004.htm
25_july_2004.htm
Russian Carrier Launches IP/MPLS Services
Golden Line has successfully introduced IP/MPLS
services using the Alcatel multiservice IP solution.
15_august_2004.htm
SubTel Forum’s Map Selected For NewBook
Submarine Telecoms Forum magazine announced
the selection of its 2004 Cable Systems Map for
use in Understanding Fiber Optics by Jeff Hecht,
published by Prentice Hall, due for release in 2005.
TeliaSonera Gains Full Ownership of Lithuanian
Carrier
TeliaSonera has agreement with the Kazickas family to acquire their 10% holding in UAB Omnitel.
15_august_2004.htm
15_august_2004.htm
VSNL Gains US Common Carrier License
The Tata managed Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) has announced that its U.S. affiliate,
VSNL America Inc., has received notice from the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of
the granting of an International Common Carrier
214 License.
WFN Awarded Oil & Gas Telecoms Support Contract
Tiscali Picks Level 3
Level 3 has agreements to supply optical wavelength services to Tiscali International Network BV,.
WFN Strategies was awarded a contract for the
provision of strategy and engineering support services for a major multi-national oil company.
1_august_2004.htm
7
The Calendar
SubmarineTelecoms
FORUM
Submarine Cable Industry Calendar 2005
Submarine Telecoms Forum is seeking
like-minded sponsors to contribute their
corporate images to the 2005 Submarine
Cable Industry Calendar.
The 2005 Submarine Cable Industry
calendar will be provided free of charge to
Submarine Telecoms Forum’s subscriber
list, encompassing some 5000+ readers
from 85 countries, including senior
government and international organization
purchasing staff, field and shipboard
personnel, academicians, consultants,
financiers, and legal specialists.
The Submarine Telecoms Forum industry
calendar will be printed in full colour on
high quality 200gsm silk art paper, approx
600 x 300mm, giving sponsors an area of
approx 300 x 300mm to display their
corporate image.
For further information, sponsorship
costs, reservations and information
contact:
Tel: +1 (703) 444 2527
Fax: +1 (703) 444 3047
officials, telecom company executives and
team, support and supply company
management, and technical, sales and
8
Emails to
the Editor
Best of luck to you with future
issues, and congratulations on
SubTel Forum gaining a world
leader position as a global
informative newsletter in the
telecoms arena.
Just one negative comment, some
of those pesky critter cable ship
data’s are woefully out of date.
Bill Petrie, TL Geohydrographics
○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○
Being “retired” (ex Telstra/NDC)
from the shrunken industry, I
have not responded to your reader
survey. I assume, however, that
you must have a significant
retired but still interested
following. Also, I enjoyed “Le
Tour”; lots of Australian
content!
Finally, and apologies for being
the pedant, but your editorial
page still refers to SubTelForum
as being published quarterly
despite the switch to bi-monthly
last year.
Peter Mills
9
Submarine Telecoms Industry
SURVEY
1. Which best describes you?
•
Academic
•
Engineer/Project Management
•
Management – 75%
•
Marketing – 25%
•
Other
0%
100%
Many thanks to those who responded to our STF/SubOptic co-sponsored industry
survey. Congratulations to Don Benton of Geographic Networks Affiliates –
International of USA, our lucky winner of the laminated 2004 edition of the
International Submarine Cable Systems map, developed by Submarine Telecoms
Forum in conjunction with T Soja and Associates, and presents the industry’s first
comprehensive worldwide systems map in over three tumultuous years.
7. What did you find the most stimulating and relevant topic to be
discussed at a SubOptic 2004?
COMMENTS:
•
•
•
The future and how we tackle the market
Where the market restructuring is likely going
Several technical papers (Use of GIS, etc.)
8. If you did not attend SubOptic 2004, why, and do you have any thoughts
on what would change your mind for SubOptic 2007?
2. What best describes your business
0%
100%
COMMENTS:
• Industry needs to improve with more “real/substantial” activities
•
Cable owner – 25%
•
System Integrator – 25%
•
Cable Installer/Maintainer – 25%
•
Marine Surveyor – 25%
•
Improving – 75%
•
Other
•
Worse – 25%
6. Did you attend SubOptic 2004?
•
Yes – 75%
•
No – 25%
9. Are business conditions improving
or getting worse?
0%
100%
0%
100%
COMMENTS:
• Harsh competition
• Ridiculously low bidders
• Still confined to specific markets that justify a solid business plan
• Improving, but only very slightly
10
10. Are you optimistic or pessimistic
about the future?
14. In your opinion, what does the industry most need?
0%
100%
COMMENTS:
• Be realistic and professional, not a crazy run to low prices/war
•
Optimistic – 50%
•
Pessimistic – 50%
•
Stability so that e can start seeing the “forest from the trees”
•
Other
•
More work, and that “killer application” that requires big increases in
bandwidth!
11. Does your current business performance indicate that we are still in an
industry recession?
COMMENTS:
• Yes, definitely
3. How do you rate the content of
Submarine Telecoms Forum
•
Excellent – 75%
•
Starting to see signs of improvement
•
Good – 25%
•
All the industry gatherings are not helpful as was once the case (PTC,
SubOptic, Telecom GTM)
•
Satisfactory
•
Unsatisfactory
•
Poor
12. How have client requirements changed over the last three years?
COMMENTS:
• Less care to technical concerns
•
Emphasis on getting low bids is primary concern
•
Client requirements are still changing (e.g., VOIP, WiFi, etc.)
•
Usage profiles and business models are not well understood
•
We still don’t have much new system business, but more repairs
•
We’re still competing for work, but there are fewer opportunities
•
Will there be any competitors left?
13. How has the type of project you handle changed over the last 3 years?
COMMENTS:
• Nothing except price
4. How do you rate the content of
News-Now and the STF website?
•
Excellent – 50%
•
Good – 25%
•
Satisfactory – 25%
•
Unsatisfactory
•
Poor
0%
100%
0%
100%
5. Would you like to see any particular changes in Submarine Telecoms
Forum or News-Now, or other website informational services?
•
There is significantly less credibility in the ITC industry
COMMENTS:
•
Need for more information on future projects
•
More information on News-Now, even if some is not exact.
•
We’ll take on any type of work
•
Good rumors are okay.
•
We are more flexible in how the contract is written
•
Active hyperlinks in News-Now making story easier to view
11
EXECUTIVE
FORUM
Olav Harald Nordgard
TampNett AS
Olav Harald Nordgard is a
Special Advisor at TampNett
AS in Stavanger. TampNett
is owned by Statoil, and
operates a fibre cable communication network in the
Norwegian sector of the northern North Sea.
Mr. Nordgard is a graduate in Control System Sciences from the University of Trondheim,
and has an M.Sc. from the University of Minnesota. He headed the Control Systems Group at
NEBB for 10 Years. He worked for 6 years as
head of Telematics at the Norwegian National
Power Company, and 4 years as head of the
same department at the Norwegian National
Grid Company. He was instrumental in establishing several North Sea off-shore fibre cable
systems. He also headed the strategy group of
the international electric energy sector, CIGRE,
on commercialization of the telecom sector.
It is generally anticipated that improved ways
of operating oil and gas platforms will come
into use over the next years. These improved
ways of operation will require much higher
communication capabilities than earlier.
Furthermore, this development will
significantly increase the dependency on the
proper functioning of the installed technical
systems, which in turn will result in strong
requirements to the availability of the
communication systems.
Benefits
Provision of high capacity and very reliable
communication solutions between offshore and
onshore may bring a number of benefits, ie:
• Full integration of off-shore and onshore IT support systems
• Moving tasks from off-shore to onshore
• Providing on-shore based competence
to off-shore locations, without flying
the expertise there
• Moving
off-shore
generated
information to on-shore for data
processing, and returning processed
data to offshore
Effects of moving tasks to shore could be:
• Some personnel may be moved onshore
• Better safety due to less personnel
offshore and less personnel transported
by helicopters
• Cost reduction
• Extending the field life by improving
the
profitability
of
offshore
installations further into the tail of the
production period
Moving onshore based competence on-line to
the offshore installations, such as for instance
the transfer of pictures/video of objects/
materials that needs to be investigated from offshore to experts onshore, rather than moving
the experts offshore, resulting in:
• Access to experts that may be located
far away.
• Quicker analysis of a situation.
• Better utilization of available expertise.
Moving data on-line from the platforms offshore to on-shore for data processing and
evaluation, allowing for instance:
• Continous analysis of geological
models while the drilling is ongoing,
possibly giving better hits in the
hydrocarbon bearing layers.
• Continous analysis of the reservoir
models while the production takes
place, possibly giving a better drainage
of the reservoir
Current types of high capacity applications
As high capacity communication has become
available to a number of offshore installations
in the North Sea, there has been a stepwise
increase in the application of such capacity.
12
An early effect was to move servers from
the platforms to shore, to facilitate the integration of the IT support systems offshore and onshore. Another one was the introduction of
high quality video conference systems, improving person to person communication between
offshore and onshore. Still another type of application that to some extent has been taken
into use is to move pictures of objects from offshore to onshore for fault analysis by experts
onshore, rather than moving the experts offshore. For this purpose there has been developed
hand held equipment that can be move around
on the platforms.
Common to these types of applications is
that they are not critical to the actual offshore
operations, and could be implemented even
with limited resilience in the communication
network.
Currently there is a considerable focus in
a number of oil companies to establish onshore
drilling support centres, where experts from
different disciplines relevant to the drilling
process are present. These experts can evaluate
real time information processed by on-shore
computers, to plan and assist during the drilling process. Benefits here may be reduced rig
time and better “hits” in the hydrocarbon bearing layers.
Eventually it is also assumed that some
control tasks will be performed from onshore
centres, reducing operational costs. This will be
especially important during the tail production
period. Clearly such a development will put
stringent requirements to the availability, security and quality of the communication network.
To support these applications, the North
Sea will in the future have a significant high
capacity, high quality, communication network.
The offshore communication network
structure
The communication challenge to the platforms
in the central and northern North Sea is the
distances to shore. These distances are so large
that they effectively block the use of high
capacity radio links to shore. However, these
platforms are often located in clusters, allowing
high capacity radio links between the platforms
in the cluster.
Up until the last few years this has resulted in a network structure where the communication to shore has been done via satellite,
and the communication between the local platforms goes via radio links, and in some instances
via local fibre.
Satellite communication is expensive,
relatively low capacity and due to the distance
to the satellite, it has a time delay that limits
some technical application capabilities.
The fibre optic cable technology however,
allows high capacity communication over long
distances, more than 300 km. However, it is
expensive to install and to pull into platforms.
Consequently, the offshore network structure in
the future will consist of a fibre backbone network to solve the “long distance – high capacity” problem. This backbone network will only
be connected to a few key platforms. The remaining platforms will be connected to the key
platforms via access networks, which could be
high capacity radio link systems.
The networks will be ring structured to
meet the high availability requirement caused
by the improved ways of operation. This is illustrated in Fig.1 on the next page.
The formation of an integrated, resilient,
“one-stop shopping” offshore network
Over the last few years several offshore fibre cable
systems have been installed in the central and
northern North Sea. All are radials, and all have
different owners.
In May 2004, the owners of the different
backbone fibre cable systems in the Norwegian
sector of the central and northern North Sea
entered into agreements to integrate the different cables into one network. The ownership of
the different cables still remains with the original owners.
This integrated network is scheduled to
be operational by 01.10.2004, and will be operated by one operator, TampNett. This will
enable “one-stop-shopping” provision of network solutions across ownership borders. It
13
will further enable the monitoring and control of the whole network from one control
centre.
As a part of this agreement TampNett is
installing a new fibre cable system connecting
the current radials, and thus forming a resilient
offshore backbone fibre network.
Serving new platforms
The integrated fibre cable network operated by
TampNett is close to the UK sector border in
some areas. As a result of this, a number of
platforms in the UK sector to the west of the
Sleipner – Heimdal area, and to the west of the
Tampen area, are within the reach of high
capacity radio link systems.
In the area west of Tampen, nine Shell
Expro operated platforms were connected to the
TampNett fibre cable system on 1st September
2003.
Fig. 2 shows the integrated backbone fibre network (red), with existing and planned
associated high capacity radio link network
(blue).
Snorre
Visund
Statfjord
Kvitebjørn
Gullfaks
Huldra
Veslefrikk
East
of
Shetland
Oseberg
West
of
Sleipner
Heimd
Troll
Brage
Kollsnes
Bergen
Heimdal
Kårstø
Grane
Stavanger
Sleipner
Draupner
FCC
Everest
Forties
Aberdeen
Ula
Ekofisk
Valhall
NSC
Shore termination
Fig. 2
Backbone ringstructure
TampNett
RL
access
ringstructure
Shore termination
Satellite backup
Fibre and RL access
Shore termination
Fibre backbone cable
Backbone platform
Fibre access network cable
Non-backbone platform
Radio link access
Fig. 1 Ring structured network
TampNett AS is a registered limited company
owned 100% by Statoil, established in January
2002.
The TampNett business idea is to be an
offshore telecom network transport provider,
serving the central and northern North Sea.
TampNett is currently serving 28 platforms in
the Norwegian and UK sector, both directly via
fibre and indirectly via established high capacity radio links.
After the completion of the new fibre cable system Grane – Heimdal – Oseberg, and the
formation of the integrated network, the
number of served platforms will increase.
14
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15
Nobody Said
It Was Easy . . .
Comprehensive Telecom Solutions for
Remote Oil & Gas Applications
Guy Arnos, Wayne Nielsen, Steven Wells
With endlessly increasing demands on the
world’s oil and gas fields, it is becoming a
necessity to have both secure and reliable
data and telecom connectivity with them.
Add to this the growing bandwidth demands
for
remote
monitoring,
reservoir
optimization, video surveillance, and a host
of other applications and it is easy to
understand why current systems are groaning
under the strain.
The solution is not always as obvious as it
might at first appear, and each field will need a
bespoke solution. After all, there is a limit to
how many microwave dishes can be mounted
in the correct attitude, subsea cables offer huge
capacity but can be vulnerable to external damage, and satellite capacity remains heinously
expensive.
Whatever the solution, it has to be a solution not for just today and tomorrow, but for
the next 10 years or so. It must be resilient,
maintainable and up-gradable and life cycle
costs need to be considered rather than just
build costs.
Network redundancy should be built in
using the most appropriate local solution. Existing network pinch points need to be examined and eliminated. Permitting and licensing
issues will need to be addressed. Back-up solutions and their limitations will need to be identified. Ongoing maintenance solutions will
have to be defined. In-field communication requirements will have to be assessed and served
With such a cornucopia of requirements,
demands and technical issues to consider, it is
easy to understand why the subject is often put
“on-hold”. After all, hydrocarbon fields are
there to pump oil and gas, and not to operate
as a telephone exchange.
Not only is it important to appreciate
what is on offer, but also why a remote, third
party view is often required to see a way forward.
Technical Options to Consider
Submarine fiber
Submarine fiber optic cables are much the same
as inter-platform communication cables. They
are physical cables laid on or under the seabed
and consist of strands of pure glass little larger
than a human hair enclosed in a cable which
affords physical protection from the elements.
Fiber optic cables extend to much longer
distances without amplification than their
16
predecessors, copper cables, and can carry orders of magnitude more traffic. The only real
issue that differs from conventional oceanic
subsea cable laying is the physical connection
to the platform(s). Fiber cable connections to
the platforms will always be secondary to those
required for oil, gas and water injection. Further, where the riser cables are connected to a
floating platform the cables will have a unique
requirement to absorb wave and tidal motion.
Microwave & Tropo-Scatter
Microwave dishes are a relatively common sight
on offshore platforms as they offer rapid connectivity for reasonable capacity demands.
Transmission frequencies are from 2 to 25 GHz,
with the higher frequencies used in short-haul
private networks. Microwave transmission is
useful when cable is difficult or impractical to
use and a straight line of sight is available between two points.
Higher bandwidths are susceptible to
weather conditions such as rain and fog because
the shorter wavelengths are more easily absorbed by water. Decreasing the distance helps.
The reliable range of the STM-4 links is somewhat less than the range of the lower-capacity
technologies and an STM-4 hop length of less
than 40km is a current planning guideline example.
Paths over water or other reflective surfaces like ice require height-diverse antennae to
avoid fading due to reflections from the reflective surface. Careful control of power levels and
antenna overspill areas allows frequencies to be
re-used within a single network, easing radio
spectrum demands and licensing requirements.
In oilfield applications, it occasionally
becomes necessary to operate microwave systems beyond the usual limits of line-of sight
distance. This is essentially a brute-force solu-
tion in that a high-powered transmitter sends
a narrow beam to its horizon, and illuminates
a region which is within line-of-sight of the receiving station.
A high-gain receiving antenna can receive
a signal refracted by the scatter region. Relying
as it does on atmospheric turbulence and
perturbations for scatter, the mechanism is weak
and subject to considerable fading, requiring
17
The downlink covers an area called the
footprint, which may be very large or cover a focused area. The geosynchronous orbit is ideal
because the satellites stay synchronized above
a specific location. However, there are only so
many slots in this orbit, and all the slots are
taken above the most populated areas of the
earth.
One
problem
with
high-orbit
geosynchronous satellites is that a typical backand-forth transmission has a delay of about a
half second, which causes problems in timecritical computer data transmissions. There are
a number of applications for using satellites in
data communications, but the time delays and
low transmission rates must be considered.
Some applications include videoconferencing,
non delay-sensitive data transmissions, and temporary backup links.
multiple diversity techniques to obtain a useful service, however a range of several hundreds
of kilometers is possible in the humid tropical
regions such as the Caribbean.
Radio
Ubiquitous on and around platforms and oil
fields but limited in range and capacity, mobile
radio is the day to day workhorse of oil field
operations communications. Mobile radio and
paging provide critical local communications
for the safe and efficient operation of
production facilities. To be highly effective,
mobile radio is dependent on other
technologies for the backhaul and trunking
required for modern digital trunked radio or
cellular solutions. Demand for frequency
spectrum is putting tougher demands on mobile
radio operators to squeeze more channels out
of existing frequency allocations. In some cases
regulatory bodies are mandating the reduction
of channel frequency width and consequent
upgrade or replacement of mobile radio
equipment. Further pressure comes from the
demands of commercial PCS, GSM and other
3G cellular operators for increased spectrum and
the reallocation of some industrial frequency
bands for these purposes.
Satellite
Satellite dishes are also fairly frequently seen on
offshore platforms as they offer communi-
cations, without physical links, over any range,
but at a price.
Satellite communication systems receive
and transmit signals between earth-based stations and space satellites. There are “high-orbit”
geosynchronous satellites, LEO (low earth orbit)
satellites, and satellites in a variety of midorbits. Geosynchronous satellites are placed in
high stationary orbits 22,300 miles above the
earth, where they receive “uplink” signals from
earth-based transmitters (or other satellites) and
downlink those signals to earth.
Cellular
Cellular technologies and services are
potentially useful for day-to-day oil field
communications. Unfortunately, most oil fields
and platforms are in remote and/or sparsely
populated areas either too far from coverage or
economically untenable for commercial
operators. If cellular technology is attractive,
field operators must often consider a private
system which has attendant problems of
spectrum licensing where frequencies may have
been auctioned to commercial telecom
18
operators. In the face of these barriers, focus
often returns to private mobile trunked radio
systems.
Impacting Issues
Aging Equipment
In the case of mature fields or platforms, telecom
infrastructures are usually old, sometimes obsolete
and invariably a “hotch potch” of individual
systems, which have been added together over
time without integration. In some instances this
agglomeration of systems comes about due to
mergers and acquisitions among partners in an
exploration or production area. Many times it is
simply a case of incremental communication
needs being addressed one at a time as they arise
over many years without any strategic telecom
planning. As noted before, the core business of
the operating entity is oil and/or gas production,
not the operation of a telecom network and
priorities are apportioned accordingly. Aging
systems still work, so the impetus to upgrade or
replace them is low unless someone assesses
potential productivity gains that new
technologies may bring to the production of
energy. What often seems to be overlooked when
communication services are inevitably given
second priority is that telecom and telemetry
systems support mission critical functions in the
production arena, and failure of those systems can
stop or severely curtail production from a single
well, a group of wells or an entire field.
CapEx and OpEx
Capital and Operational expenses must be
considered in terms of life cycle costs including
maintenance, backup facilities, upgrades and
replacements. Telecom infrastructure capital and
operational budgets often come under intense
scrutiny out of proportion to the percentage that
these budgets may represent of the overall capital
projects or operational budgets involved. Because
of this scrutiny budgeting must be accurate and
as inclusive of all potential capital and operating
costs as possible. Poorly budgeted projects are
subject to chronic cost overruns which exacerbate
the problem of quality telecom assets being
perceived as necessary evils or luxuries.
Implementation Schedule
Implementation schedules must be carefully
examined to ensure that telecom infrastructure is
in place to meet operational needs. Equipment
lead times must be considered as well as
construction time frames. Certain specialized
systems such as undersea cables may require time
consuming seabed surveys, environmental
permits and seabed easements unfamiliar to the
oil field operator. In other areas frequency
licensing may be extremely difficult and lie on
the critical path. In some exotic climates,
construction maybe limited to specific narrow
windows for environmental and/or logistical
reasons.
Survivability, Redundancy and Single Points of
Failure
Network survivability is crucial where remote
telemetry and control systems are deployed.
Failure of process control networks for only
seconds may result in production interruptions
or slowdowns. Communication failure may also
compromise personnel safety, particularly in
hazardous environments, emergency situations
and harsh climates. Survivability is a function of
eliminating single points of network failure and
implementing network redundancies. Budgetary
constraints or priorities often conflict with
redundancy requirements and the impact of
production inefficiencies must be weighed against
the cost of network survivability and the mean
time to repair.
Strategic Planning and End User Bandwidth
Requirements
To prevent the problems seen with “evolved”
systems, it is important to look strategically at
19
telecom requirements for the operation. This
strategic evaluation should consider current
needs as well as future requirements.
Current needs should be reviewed
against end user bandwidth requirements.
End user bandwidth demands are always varied, diverse and ever expanding. From the simplest telex channel which can operate quite
happily on a radio link, to the most sophisticated remote control and monitoring functions, which consume huge bandwidth, there
are a multitude of applications and processes
which need to be served.
Identifying each of these tasks and the
demands they have on a communication network is a challenge. Links are often “taken for
granted” and it is only when they are added
together that the impact on bandwidth is
identified.
Future requirements should allow for
advances foreseen in both telecommunications and production technology as well as
any potential requirements for remote operation of assets to improve productivity and efficiency. The analysis should consider
upgradeability and examine the benefits of
extra capacity against the additional capital
costs.
Operational Risks
The operational risks to telecom systems must
also be considered and evaluated. For
terrestrial cable systems the risk of cable
damage in either buried or aerial placement
should be examined against future expected
construction or excavation and/or weather.
For submarine cable systems, the risk of cable
damage due to fishing activities, ship
anchoring, chafing or sea bed seismic activity
must be considered.
For microwave systems, weather conditions such as heavy rain, cold temperatures or
thermal inversions and other path conditions
must be taken into account.
System Engineering and Design Efforts
A telecom system architecture and design must
be developed from all the data,
considerations and requirements assembled
from the steps above. The development of the
plan should include a review of telecom
technologies, costs and integration issues.
Systems may include fixed land-based
systems, undersea systems, nomadic systems
for such applications as roving drill rigs as
well as mobile voice and data applications.
An overall network architecture and system design will form the basis for an effective
economic model of the system.
Analysis for Network Model and Budget Model
Once the system architecture and design are
complete the network may be modeled and the
capital budget developed. A well-constructed
Guy Arnos has over 20 years
experience in submarine and
terrestrial networks. He has been
responsible for planning, engineering and implementation of transcontinental and metropolitan
networks. He supported provision and installation of
a multi-submarine cable system in the Gulf of Mexico,
and provision and installation of a fiber optic, RF,
microwave and cellular system in Alaska. He joined
in WFN Strategies in 2001 as Senior Consultant.
Wayne Nielsen has over 20 years
of submarine cable experience,
and has managed international
telecom projects worldwide. He
has been responsible for planning
and implementation of global
business strategies and engineering of submarine
telecoms networks. In 2001, he founded WFN
Strategies, providing telecom, oil & gas and defense
customers with business and engineering solutions.
He is publisher of Submarine Telecoms Forum .
Steve Wells has worked in R&D for submarine
systems for over 30 years, and was a key engineer in
burial technology, optical repeater
terminations, optical jointing and
optical fiber packaging. He was
Head of Ops for marine
engineering at BT, responsible for
European and Far Eastern
permits. He was also Director of Global Fiber Networks
at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is a founding director
of Datawave Ltd and Managing Director of WFN
Strategies (Europe).
20
budget model will allow a variety of “what
if” scenarios to be quickly and easily
considered by identifying and altering key
assumptions parametrically. The model should
include operating cost estimates as well as
capital costs so life cycle cost analysis may be
performed.
Business Case Modeling
In addition to basic cost modeling, some
operators may wish to consider different
acquisition and/or operational strategies in
addition to conventional “buy, build and
operate.”
These strategies might include lease, leaseback, third party outsourcing of services over
dedicated facilities or other creative and unconventional scenarios. Any of these business options should be compared on a present value
basis considering all life cycle costs.
Final Report cooperatively drafted with client
Ultimately, the results of all the data
gathering and analysis must be tabulated,
conclusions drawn with recommendations
made and reported. Involvement of the client
with the analytical process and the drafting
of the report will result in the best chances of
success for the effort.
Reports can be written with due regard to
client sensitivities while preserving the integrity of the data, results and recommendations.
Conclusion
A remote, third party view is often what is required
to see a way forward for several reasons, including:
• Sufficient breadth and depth of telecom
expertise does not exist within an oil/and
or gas company
• Many of the operational personnel are
too close to the situation to look
objectively at technology and costs
• Company staff have too many other priorities to be able to complete a comprehensive integrated review in a timely
fashion, and
Desired Effort Results
The end result of the process should be a well
planned telecom system which is well
integrated with the oil and/or gas field or
platform operations. The system must be
designed to be cost effective and to seamlessly
enhance the safety and efficiency of the
production operation.
• Almost all oil and/or gas fields are owned
and/or operated by consortia or partnerships of multiple operators. In this
scenario, an independent third party’s
review may be perceived to be more objective with less “self interest” by the
other owners or operators involved.
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REPRINTS
Prices on the right are for digital reprints of editorial pages from
Submarine Telecoms Forum, unaltered. Page size is 8.25" x 11.75"
on 28lb paper stock. Shipping cost is in addition to reprint price.
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21
500 m
At submarine depths,
Nexans was the first
to manufacture and
install 384 fiber
submarine cable.Nexans
has qualified and
installed their URC-1
cable family for fiber
counts up to 384 fibers.
1500 m
For further information, contact:
Telecom:
Vegard Larsen
Tel: + 47 22 88 62 21
E-mail: vegard-briggar.
[email protected]
Oil & Gas:
Jon Seip
Tel: +47 22 88 66 22
E-mail: [email protected]
goes deeper
Nexans Nor way AS
P.O Box 6450 Etterstad,
N-0605, Oslo Nor way
Tel: + 47 22 88 61 00
Fax: + 47 22 88 61 01
US Contact:
Les Valentine
Tel. +1 281 578 6900
Fax: +1 281 578 6991
E-mail: [email protected]
exans
Global expert in cables
and cabling systems
22
HIGH FIBRE DIET
A high count fibre submarine cable family with extension of
unrepeatered transmission span lengths
During the recent years there has been an increased demand for high fibre count in both
terrestrial and submarine cables, especially in
coastal applications as part of a terrestrial network. This requires high fibre count in submarine cables, together with a demand for G655
fibre types to cover future bit rate upgrades.
The submarine cable development has
been accompanied by the development of designated cable joints and equipment for remote
amplification.
by Vegard Briggar Larsen
A branching unit (BU) and cable joint
boxes have been developed and qualified for
2000m sea depth. The BU, which splits the fibre count between single and double legs is for
example used in transmission links between oil
platforms in order to pull in and hang off one
submarine cable instead of two.
The single tube configuration can also
accommodate up to 96 fibres, in a 5.6 mm OD
steel tube. Furthermore, the single tube configuration can be fitted with a smaller tube (j 2.3
mm) for deep sea installations.
Optical testing during manufacturing and
qualification have clearly shown that the stainless steel tube provides a stable and reliable environment for the fibres over the whole optical
bandwith. This has been demonstrated for
standard single mode fibres (G.652), G.654 as
CABLE DESIGN
DESIGN OBJECTIVES
The main design objective for the high fibre
count sub sea cables has been to provide a family (URC-1 family) of reliable and cost effective
cable designs suitable for both present and future fibre types. Hence, the cables developed
provide excellent physical protection of the fibres with very low stresses and environmental
impacts on the fibre during all service conditions (/1/-/6/).
Optical Package
The optical package presented in Figure 1 is
based on the steel tube technology in which the
fibres are protected inside a jelly filled, laser
welded stainless steel tube. The cable core consists of up to eight SZ stranded, 3.7 mm OD,
steel tubes, each with a capacity of 48 fibres.
Thus, up to 384 fibres can be accommodated.
The fibres in each tube are uniquely colour
coded.
SINGLE TUBE
FIBRES
JELLY
MULTI TUBE (I)
STEEL TUBE
Figure 1. Optical package.
MULTI TUBE (II)
23
well as for the new fibre types (G.655) with
larger effective areas and reduced chromatic dispersion slope to accommodate higher number
of wavelengths for the new submarine “highways”
In Figure 2, cabled attenuation for a 25km
trial cable length with large effective area fibres
(G.654) is shown, with 0.162dB/km @ 1550nm.
Cable Core and Armouring
For mechanical protection and electrical insulation a polyethylene sheath is applied over the
steel tube(s). For electroding and fault finding
purposes, copper conductors are integrated in
the interstices between the tubes in the multi
tube designs. For the single tube design a copper tape applied over the steel tube ensures electrical continuity.
The overall diameter of the cable core is
10 mm, 16 mm or 20 mm for the single tube,
four tubes and eight tube configurations respectively.
The cable core is armoured with galvanized steel wires. All steel wires are preformed in order to provide more uniform coverage, better handling and installation characteristics, and facilitate termination work.
A double layer of polypropylene yarn (as
shown in Figure 2) or high density
polyethylene jacketing is available for outer
protection.
A complete range of cables; single armour
(SA) and double armour (DA) designs offering
tensile strengths from 5 to 400 kN has been
Characteristics
Figure 3. URC-1 cable with 96 to 384 fibres.
qualified (/8/). Typical DA designs are shown in
Figure 3. The main cable characteristics for the
designs are shown in Table 1.
48,96 fibres
192, 384 fibres
SA
DA
SA
DA
Cable outer diameter (mm)
20-34
24-42
42
45.5
Cable weight in air (kg/m)
1-2.6
2-5.1
5.1
7
NTTS Load*) (kN)
100-200
150-400
400
400
Min. bend. diam. at NTTS (m)
Max. water depth (m)
Max fibre count
Operating temp. range (°C)
2.5
3
3000/1500
500
48/96
192/384
-20 - +35
*) Nominal Transient Tensile Strength, 1 hour
Figure 2.
OTDR trace showing 0.162 dB/kmcabled
attenuation for test cable.
Table 1. Cable characteristics. Single armour (SA) and double armour (DA) cable designs
24
CABLE ACCESSORIES
Joints and Branching Units
The development of high-count fibre cables has
been followed by the development and qualification of a family of Joint Boxes and Branching Units (BU). General design and dimensions
are shown in Figure 4.
The branching unit and the joints are designed and tested for 3 m bending diameter, and
can be deployed using standard cable installation procedures and equipment. The units are
Figure 4. Joint boxes for 96 and 192/384-fibre splices
and BU.
Figure 5. 384 fibres joint box. (Two bend restrictors and
outer sea case not shown).
Figure 6. Fibre splicing principles with two jointers working
in parallel with fibre splicing.
designed and tested for electrical continuity and
insulation from the seawater, which is required
for cable electroding and fault finding purposes.
Joints and BU assembly principles are
based on mechanical terminating the cable ends
followed by fibre jointing before the sea-case
closure is installed.
The jointing time is based upon the
following manpower:
Cable End A: 2 optical testers
Cable End B: 2 optical testers
Jointing area: 2 jointers.The jointing time
could be further reduced by increasing the
manpower, especially during final optical
verification.
The assembly time for a 384 fibre joint box
is shown below.
• Mechanical assembly and fibre
splicing: 24 hrs
• Prepare cable ends and assemble
armour termination: 2 x 2 hrs
• Fibre bracket assembly: 2 hrs
• Fibre splicing: 16 hrs (24 fibres/hour)
• Final assembly: 2 hrs
• Optical verification: 16 hrs (24 fibres/
hour)
Remote Amplifier Box
The Remote Amplifier Box (RAB) amplifies the
optical signal in un-repeatered submarine fibre
cables. The technology relies on passive optical
components, which are optically pumped from
a land terminal.
The amplification increases the
repeaterless transmission link distance from
typically 220 km to 300 km.
25
Figure 7. Optical Topography for one transmission
channel (one fibre pair shown).
Figure 7 depicts the optical topography for
one fibre pair. An Erbium Doped Fibre (EDF) of
typically 25 m length and an optical isolator
provide the signal amplification. The unit can
presently accommodate up to 96 such fibre
pairs, implying up to 192 optical fibres.
The EDF is pumped at 1480 nm from the
receiver terminal. One fibre is utilised for both
pumping and the amplified signal. For the
shown pre-amplification single pumping configuration, a budget improvement of typically
15 dB is feasible. Signal transmission is at typically 1520 nm wavelength.
The RAB relies solely on passive optical
components, with pump lasers and control circuitry located in the land station. The system
thus maintains the high reliability, low cost and
simplicity characterizing un-repeatered systems.
The RAB (Figure 8) is designed to protect the
optical components and the fibre splices from the
mechanical loads arising in transportation, in-
stallation and long term operation. Special attention has been dedicated to hydrogen protection, to which Erbium Doped Fibre is sensitive.
Mechanical termination of the sea cable is
accomplished utilising a hydraulically activated
cone system. Pressure integrity and minimum
hydrogen ingress rely on metal-metal seals and
standard compression fittings to the fibre steel
tubes. The design permits easy adaptation to all
Nexans sea cables.
tective sleeves, together with fibre service
lengths, are secured in dedicated trays.
RAB provides electrical isolation from
seawater and continuity through the transmission link, as required for cable electroding purposes.
The 48 fibre pair RAB has overall length
480 mm. Outer diameter is 143 mm. Including
bend limiters yields corresponding dimensions
1700 mm by 216 mm. Total weight including
bend limiters is approximately 75 kg.
RAB is incorporated within the cable
transmission system prior to installation and
is deployed using standard cable installation
procedures and equipment.
Sealing of sea casing.
The branching unit , the joint boxes and the
Remote Amplifier Box all rely on metal-metal
sealing technology. The concept is shown in
Figure 9. The primary and secondary seals to the
Figure 8. RAB exploded view (48 fibre pairs).
Cylindrical outer housing and two bend restrictors have
been omitted for clarity
The optical components (isolators and
Erbium Doped Fibre) are secured on aluminium
trays, in turn mounted on a central axial
bracket. All fusion fibre splices and their pro-
Figure 9. Sealing Principles
26
has entered into an
arrangement with
Lloyd’s Register
- Fairplay
making available, complimentary to
subscribers, comprehensive
databases of commercial vessels
(www.sea-web.org/),
ports and companies
(www.portguide.com).
In order to qualify
for a free trial of these services, contact
[email protected].
outer sea casing comprise a metal C-ring and
an elastomeric O-ring respectively. The materials have been choosen for long term sea
water exposure. The cable steel tube is sealed
using a standard metal-metal compression fitting, which in turn is mounted in a ceramic
insert for electric insulation from the sea water.
The Erbium doped fibre in the RAB is particularly sensitive to hydrogen, which is generated in the sub-sea plant corrosion process.
The metal-metal seals offer efficient and reliable hydrogen diffusion barriers.
Ultra long haul transmission span length
Nexans is providing the following proposal
for a 550km link. The basic link capacity is
2.5 Gb/s (STM-16) per fibre pair.
This link requires a combination of
Remote Optically Pumped Amplifiers (ROPA).
A particular feature of the proposed
solution for a very long link is that the submarine cable will need a different number of
fibres, depending on the section being considered.
The additional fibres at the two ends of
the submarine cable are used to provide
additional pump power to the ROPA elements,
and hence to increase the total reach.
Nexans’ proposed solutions for the terminal equipment are described on a per fibre
pair basis.
Requirements
This system configuration has been designed
on the basis of the following data:
Description for
550 km Link
Link
Data transmission rate
per channel
STM-16
Link length
550
Fiber description
G.654
Cable attenuation
(including splices)
0.160
Units
km
dB/km
Aging and Repair margin 5
dB
Maximum fibre
dispersion, G.654 fibre 20
ps/nm-km
ROPA pump attenuation
(1480 nm) for G.654
fibre
0.205
dB/km
Technical solution
The solution proposed relies on using long-haul
OLE equipment with the addition of two ROPAs
in each direction of transmission. One ROPA is
located near the transmitter (the Transmit
ROPA) and the other near the receiver (the
Receive ROPA).
Optical budget
The table on the following page details the
optical power budget throughout the link.
27
Parameter Description
Link length
Value
Units
550
km
Cabled fibre attenuation
(splicing included)
0.160
dB/km
5
dB
Total required optical budget 93
dB
Repair and aging margin
Link dispersion
12 000
ps/nm
Technical Solution
Transmitter launch power
29.5
dBm
Transmit ROPA gain
16
dB
Receive ROPA gain
17
dB
Receive ROPA noise figure
8
dB
Receive fibre Raman gain
18
dB
Receiver sensitivity
(see note)
-40
dBm
Receiver noise figure
5.7
dB
FEC gain (see note)
5.5
dB
102,8
dB
Available optical budget
(for reference only)
Tx ROPA position
(from transmitter)
65
km
300
km
125
km
Dispersion limit of receiver
4500
ps/nm
Required dispersion
compensation (see note)
7500
ps/nm
Middle span length
Rx ROPA position
(from receiver)
Notes to previous table:
• The Rx ROPA position is that for a doubly pumped
ROPA. The second pump must be delivered to the
ROPA using a separate fibre. The Tx ROPA requires
separate pumping fibres.
STM-16 Client Interface @ 1310 nm
OTM-16 (FEC)
(TX)
(RX)
SUPER
RAMAN
SUPER
RAMAN
DCM
DCM
SUPER
RAMAN
WDM
SUPER
RAMAN
65 km
G.654
Tx ROPA
60 km
G.654
• The FEC gain of 5.5 dB cannot be measured
separately from the other parameters while in the
system since the sensitivity point is approached at
multiple locations.
Rx ROPA
Total Span
550 km
300 km
G.654
• The calculated available optical budget is obtained
by adding the following: the launch power, the Tx
ROPA gain, the Rx ROPA gain, the Raman gain in
the receive span, the effective receiver sensitivity
with the optical preamplifier, and the FEC contribution. From this, we remove noise contribution
from the Rx ROPA and from the pre-amplifier.
The solution proposed relies on using long-haul
OLE equipment with the addition of two ROPAs
in each direction of transmission. One ROPA is
located near the transmitter (the Transmit ROPA)
PREAMP
P81-S
• The receiver’s sensitivity is the effective receiver
sensitivity when used with a low-noise EDFA preamplifier and in the absence of other error sources.
• The dispersion compensation value represents the
minimum amount of dispersion compensation
that must be provided for the system to provide
the optimum performance. The dispersion
compensation will be divided between the
transmitting end and the receiving end of the link.
The position of the dispersion compensation is
chosen to have no effect on the optical budget (i.e.
it is placed before the EDFA booster or after the
EDFA pre-amplifier).
Terminal 1
Rx ROPA
60 km
G.654
Tx ROPA
OSC
link
65 km
G.654
P81-S
SUPER
RAMAN
SUPER
RAMAN
WDM
PREAMP
DCM
DCM
SUPER
RAMAN
SUPER
RAMAN
(RX)
(TX)
OTM-16 (FEC)
Terminal 2
STM-16 Client Interface @ 1310 nm
Straight Line Diagram for 550km Link
and the other near the receiver (the Receive ROPA).
The following diagram illustrates the relative
position of the elements in the system, especially
the additional pumping fibres that are required.
Since the relative positions of the Transmit ROPA
and of the Receive ROPA do not coincide, there
will be a total of four ROPA housings in the system.
28
QUALIFICATION
The family of high count fibre cables, the joint
boxes and the BU have been successfully qualified
for the loads associated with manufacturing,
transportation, installation and operation. The
RAB qualification tests are summarised in table 2.
The entire cable family up to 384 fibres with
associated joint boxes, has been qualified
accordingly (Figure 10).
Test
Contents
Sheave passage
200kN tension, 3m
diameter sheave, 3 cycles
Figure 10: Tensile testing of the 384 fibre cable and joint
box at 3 m diameter sheave.
Torsion
2kN, 1 turn per 5m, 5 cycles.
Linear tension
360kN
Temp. cycling
Temp. range: 20°C-+50°C, 10 cycles.
installations are the Ireland-UK Crossing
System (245 km and 267 km, 24 fibres) and
“Nor Sea Com 1” (740 km total system length,
260 km longest link length, 24 fibres).
To date, about six commercial cable
lengths with 192 fibres have been successfully
manufactured, tested and installed. Pre- and
post installation measurements carried out on
192 fibres cables show only minor differences
in optical attenuation, all within 0.200 dB/km
at 1550 nm.
The “Level-3” project (England–Belgium
crossing, 121 km, 192 fibres) exhibited average
pre- and post installation loss 0.190 dB/km and
0.197 dB/km respectively. The loss variation is
attributed to the number of installation joints.
A field trial on the installed Level-3 cable
successfully demonstrated 32 channels at 40
Hydraulic pressure 450 bar, 24 hours
Vibration
Swept sine 10-150 Hz, 1 g, 3 axis
Shock
Half sine, 20g, 6ms, 3 axis
He leak testing
Leak rate better than
10-8 cm3/s. (Room temp)
Table 2. Qualification Tests.
INSTALLED SYSTEMS
A high number of sea cables of the described
design has been successfully installed and operated. These installations include more than
8000 km cable, with up to 48 fibres. Among the
Vegard Briggar Larsen
graduated from the University of Salford, England in 1991 with a BEng
degree with honours in
Electronics. He spent 2
years doing reasearch in
thin superconducting films at the University
of Technology and Science, Trondheim Norway, before joining Alcatel Kabel Norge, (now
Nexans Norway), in 1997 as a project engineer mainly responsible for development and
qualification tasks.
He was appointed Marketing Manager in 2002
from former position as Product Manager of
Telecom cables manufactured at Nexans
Norway’s Rognan plant.
Gbit/s /7/. Hence, demonstrating a potential
upgrade to 122 Tbit/s for the installed 192 fibre cable.
To date, one commercial cable length (15
km) with 384 fibres have been successfully
manufactured, tested and installed across the
Oslo fjord in Norway for “Song Networks” as
shown in Figures 11 and 12. This length was
provided with 288 off G.652 and 96 off G.655
fibres. The length was manufactured and installed without any joint boxes. However, a
joint box was qualified and available under the
installation.
29
installation as the handling characteristics for
the 384 fibre cable turned out to be similar to
the cables with lower fibre count.
CONCLUSION
Figure 11. Loading the 384 fibre cable to the installation
vessel from rail cars.
The 384 fibre cable was installed with the
C/V Fjordkabel from Bulk Transport AS in
Harstad, Norway. The C/V Fjordkabel is a fairly
small vessel; 37.4 metres long, 10.3 metres wide,
and has a draft of 2.0 metres. However, this
did not cause any problems during the
Figure 12. Installation of the 384 fibre cable with the
C/V Fjordkabel.
The URC-1 cable family has been developed,
qualified and installed for up to 384 fibres. The
design has proved cost effective and reliable.
Tests and experience from installed cables
have demonstrated the stability of the optical
transmission characteristics of the URC-1 submarine cable under all service environments. More
than 8000 km URC-1 sea cable have been successfully installed.
Cabling tests have shown that it is possible
to make cables with cabled attenuation down to
0.160 dB/km.
Joints and a branching unit have been developed and qualified for 3000 m sea depth.
A Remote Amplifier Box has been developed
and qualified for 3000 m sea depth. The unit is
pre-installed on the cable and is deployed with
normal cable laying techniques. The unit improves the optical budget in optical transmission
links by typically 15 dB, corresponding to typically 80 km for the simplest ROPA configuration.
With more advanced ROPA configurations,
transmission distances up to 550 km can be
achieved, with no eletronics in the transmission
line. Thus , the overall reliability and low cost
characteristic to un-repeatered systems is maintained, as the unit is electrically passive.
wfnstrategies
19471 Youngs Cliff Road. Suite 100,
Potomac Falls, Virginia 20165, USA
Tel: +1 (703) 444-2527
Fax: +1 (703) 444-3047
The Folly, Haughley
Stowmarket, IP14 3NS, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1449 771 793
Fax: +44 (0) 1449 678 031
www.wfnstrategies.com
30
OFS innovates today’s major submarine
networks with fibers that support longer
distances and higher capacities than ever
before. The results? Lower system costs
and unrivaled performance.
OFS has the optical fiber to support all
your emerging system design needs –
z Lower dispersion management cost
z Higher reliability
z Greater capacity and bandwidth
To unleash your system’s full
capabilities while keeping your
costs competitive, choose OFS
fiber for your next submarine
cable project.
For more information on OFS’ complete
family of fibers for the submarine market, please visit the OFS Fiber website at
www.ofsoptics.com
or call Tom Davis at (973) 655-1502
31
BRIDGING
THE GAP
By Natasha Kahn
One of CTC Marine Projects’ first steps in
bridging the gap from the telecoms industry
to the oil and gas industry presented itself
through the opportunity to complete The
Sleipner to Grane Fibre Optic Cable Network
Project for Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke
GmbH (NSW). With the end client Norsk
Hydro, the project comprised a single, 24 fibre,
fibre optic cable linking the Sleipner A (15/
9) platform and the Grane (25/11) platform
on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
The notice-period given to CTC of one
week before mobilisation represented the shortest in CTC’s previous experience, yet mobilisation commenced on schedule on 22nd July 2003.
The project comprised two segments; FOC2/
Jumper to Sleipner Target Box (0.682km in
length) and Sleipner Target Box to Grane
(100.258km in length) crossing one active pipeline and three in-service fibre-optic communications cables along the Sleipner Target Box to
Grane segment of the Sleipner to Grane Fibreoptic cable route project. Water depths along
the route ranged from 84m at the Sleipner platform to 128m at the Grane platform.
CTC Marine projects were contracted by
NSW to perform simultaneous lay and burial
of approximately 103km of cable to a target
depth of 1m between the Sleipner and Grane
platforms. The installation activities that CTC
Marine Projects undertook, used its M/V Skandi
Neptune, as Norsk Hydro required a DP2 class
32
vessel.
This was combined with the
Rockplough2 - Norsk Hydro wanted to use a
plough instead of a trencher - which was deployed from the stern of the Skandi Neptune.
Rockplough2, a 2 nd Generation CTC
RockploughTM, proved the plough of choice due
to its additional cable engine to reduce residual
tension, its cutting disc and jetting system.
These enhancements enable the plough to carry
out primary burial with high rates of productivity.
Throughout the installation operation,
the Quality System used was in compliance with
the relevant requirements of ISO 9002 for all
activities supporting Project Operations.
In addition, the Safety Management System used was based on the requirements of UK
Health and Safety at Work Regulations, adapted,
where necessary to suit the requirements of the
Norwegian Petroleum Directorates’ NORSOK
standards. Project personnel were trained and
experienced in Safety and Environmental protection and the Project Manager also ensured
that all sub-contractors and suppliers operated
to adequate Safety systems.
Cable operations commenced on 29th July
when the cable buoy at the Sleipner platform
was hooked and brought to deck. On 2nd August, at KP 10.954, the plough was recovered,
and freelay operations up to the TAT 14 cable
crossing, at KP 44.320, commenced.
Final jointing commenced on 9th August
and was completed on 10th August. Following
recovery of the release, the vessel departed the
Grane platform.
Assistance from an ROV from the M/V
Geobay enabled the bight to be laid on the
seabed, and the bridle connection points to be
cut, leaving the cable on the seabed. The release
bridle was then recovered to deck.
The vessel arrived alongside Tees Offshore
Base, Middlesbrough, on 14th August. Demobilisation commenced and all additional equipment, spare cable and additional personnel had
departed the vessel on 15th August.
Throughout the loading and laying operations, a single offshore crew was utilised and
during all ploughing operations the following
key parameters were continuously recorded on
the lay data logger:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Tow tension
Burial depth
Plough position
Cable tension
Residual tension
Bellmouth entry angle
This was essential to ensure control of
burial depth was maintained by positioning of
the skids and hinging of the chassis of the
plough; an arrangement which allows for maximum stability of the plough at all depths.
Throughout ploughing operations, the
maintenance of the plough and deck handling
equipment was optimised where possible to be
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33
timed simultaneously with planned plough recoveries, therefore minimising the amount of
surface laid cable along the route.
A key objective during installation of surface laid sections was the achievement of the
correct level of slack. The slack was planned, by
NSW within their issued RPL, in order to allow
the cable to contact the seabed throughout its
length, with sufficient excess to allow for operational contingencies, and inaccuracies in
supplied survey data.
During the laying of Sleipner-Grane, one
existing pipeline and three existing cables were
successfully crossed. A crossing agreement was
in place between the Client and the owners /
operators of each pipeline/cable prior to the M/
V Skandi Neptune commencing lay operations
across each. At each crossing the plough was
recovered to deck.
On successful completion of the project,
Norsk Hydro commented on the professionalism shown by all parties on board with both
they and NSW commenting that the project was
completed in a manner which would recommend CTC for future jobs.
The completion of that project has contributed to ensuring CTC’s involvement in the
current stretch of cable lay in the same area for
the newly formed subsidiary of Statoil,
TampNett.
This extension of the existing network is
currently being completed by a consortium comprising CTC Marine Projects and Ericsson Network Technologies and requires the provision
of a submarine cable data network linking the
Norwegian oil platforms Oseberg, Heimdal and
Grane.
The consortium combines the high quality of Ericsson’s submarine cable solutions with
technically advanced CTC installation and
trenching equipment.
The project, which requires installation of
2 lengths of fibre optic cables, 110km and 60km
each and includes installation of 3 cables into
a J-tube, is being carried out by CTC Marine
Projects’ Ocean Challenger, Rockplough 1 and
the PT1 jet trenching vehicle and started in midJuly. Preparatory work was carried out with Island Frontier.
The Ocean Challenger is the ideal vessel
for this type of project as it was recently converted and successfully sea-trialled for triple role
operations and has been permanently equipped
with CTC’s newly acquired high power (2MW,
3m burial) jet trenching system PT1.
The multi-spread vessel is now equipped
for light offshore construction and flexible product installation duties, jet-trenching operations
for oilfield products up to 60" diameter and fibre-optic cable installation and plough burial,
offering multi-role deployment without role
specific mobilisation.
On completion of this project,
Rockplough 1 will be upgraded to an ISU
plough due for delivery in October. The variable geometry arrangement will be retained
ensuring the ISU plough will be capable of continuous burial and immediate backfill
through most seabed conditions.
How’s your image?
BJ Marketing Communications Providing support to companies in the submarine cable industry for over 10 years
Brochure and literature design and production z exhibition design and management z website design and maintenance
Contact Ted Breeze z Telephone +44 1206 230472 z Facsimile +44 1206 231640 z Email [email protected]
34
Offshore Oil and
Energy Systems
Supporting the Need for True
High Bandwidth Systems
by TOM Davis, OFS
The ability to communicate with offshore
platforms has been an issue since the
inception of this type of energy recovery
process. The advances in the technologies
used to erect platforms have provided the
energy industry with a large growing number
of offshore platforms around the world.
These platforms are in geographically diverse
areas (North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Arabian Sea,
etc.) and provide unique installation and
operational issues. However, the one thing
common to all of these regional clusters of
platforms is the need to network these rigs
into a common communications system. This
network needs to provide transmission
capabilities beyond basic voice and data
applications being supported today.
There has been a major push by the telecommunications systems providers supplying
satellite communications networks to move
toward higher bandwidth applications. For
basic voice and data applications (with internet
access being a driving need), satellite communications systems need to offer a relatively low
cost basic solution. However, the meaning of
the term “high bandwidth” is in the eye of the
beholder and is apparent when running certain
applications over a satellite channel. The satellite market supports the communications
needs for the majority of the offshore platforms
today. To move beyond the current communications applications and deploy state-of-the-art
35
systems, greater bandwidth will need to be deployed on the offshore platforms. These systems
need to provide enough bandwidth to support
applications providing access to the sensors,
controls, and security that keep a rig operational.
While the initial investment in an undersea cabling system is considerably more than a
satellite system with a longer engineering and
installation interval, the benefits to the offshore
oil and energy systems markets are unquestionable. Recent concerns over security from terrorist threats have pushed applications for remote access and control of high-resolution
video, radar, and other surveillance systems, far
beyond that data transport capabilities of satellite communications.
Additionally, quick access to communications systems is most critical during times of
environmental problems, primarily weather
related issues. Undersea cables providing optical links to the platforms are the only system
that can provide virtually uninterrupted coverage of these remote sites.
Undersea fiber optic cable systems supporting today’s offshore platforms have been
deployed all over the world, and are somewhat
more complex than standard undersea transoceanic cable systems (word choice?). The undersea cabling system industry has learned to
deal with the movement of the rig(s), and the
Tom Davis is a Sales Manager for Submarine Fiber at OFS in Norcross, GA. He has
worked in the submarine industry in a sales
capacity since 1995 supporting AT&T and
Lucent Technologies in the area of ocean fiber
sales.
deployment concern associated with the last
mile of cable to the platform. Also, there have
been R&D advances from the companies that
provide the energy industry with the sensors,
controls, video imaging, etc., that enable the
rigs to be remotely controlled from a centralized home base of operations. The aforementioned concerns over weather related threats to
the offshore rigs, is one of the primary drivers
for the deployment of real time control over a
network of offshore rigs. There are day-to-day
operational benefits of having a remote centralized location managing the various systems required to manage an offshore platform. However, storms provide the greatest risk of loss to
an offshore oil field.
During periods of poor weather, undersea
cables are less prone than satellite and microwave systems to service disruptions. Energy
platforms are shut down when in the direct path
of weather disturbances such as hurricanes and
typhoons. Once operations on the rigs are suspended, it requires many days to bring them
back on line, at a cost of millions in lost oil
revenues. These losses are sizable, even if the rigs
were never touched by the storm. The big concern facing the energy companies during a major storm is “when” to shut down the rig. The
capability to monitor and control the operation of the rigs in relationship to an approaching storm can save millions of dollars in unnecessary downtime.
The ability to upgrade a cable system (increase the bandwidth) is accomplished by either
adding wavelengths to the existing installed
fibers, or adding additional fibers. Adding fibers
in the form of a new cable is an expensive upgrade solution when compare to the cost of
adding wavelengths. On current systems, these
wavelengths operate at speeds of 2.5-10 Gbps,
which is what I refer to in the title of this article as “true high bandwidth”. One major consideration when adding wavelengths is the type
of fiber used in the system, and the distance of
the spans. Spans are the distances between
points where the signal is amplified. Amplification of the signal can take place where the
systems electronics is stationed (referred to as
the “dry plant” portion of undersea network),
or with amplifiers placed in-line with the cable
that’s in the water (the “wet plant” portion of
the network). The other major consideration
in the design of the system is the distance from
the control center on land to the offshore platforms and the distances between the rigs in that
field.
36
The longer the distance that light travels
in fiber, the more attenuation impacts the light
pulse, and the more the power of the light is
lost. In addition to losing power over the length
of glass fiber, the light pulse spreads in time,
which is caused by the inherent dispersion
within the fiber. The pulses of light being transmitted through a fiber are always made up of
various wavelengths of light, that don’t necessarily travel together at the same speed. This is
a very basic explanation of optical attenuation
(loss) and chromatic dispersion, which are key
criteria used in deciding on what fiber to deploy in a system. There are a number of different fibers that are used in undersea cable systems, with these fibers possessing different characteristics in regard to dispersion and loss. The
transmission capabilities of these fibers, as they
relate to supporting Dense Wave Division
Multiplexing (DWDM) applications using a
large number of wavelengths, vary from one
fiber to the other. There are many other optical fiber parameters other than attenuation and
dispersion that impact the performance of optical fibers. In the interest of brevity, only two
optical parameters are covered for this paper.
The two primary optical fibers used in undersea cable for the offshore markets are singlemode
and non-zero dispersion fiber (NZDF).
The major difference between these two
fibers is dispersion and attenuation, with the
NZDF providing better dispersion characteris-
tics, and the singlemode offering lower loss.
Performance variations are observed when you
compare the maximum distance the optical signal can travel before too much power. Typically,
the singlemode requires amplification after 80100 kilometers with the NZDF in the range off
250 kilometers. Although the NZDF’s dispersion levels allow for more wavelengths and
greater span distances, dispersion compensation modules (DCMs) can be added to the
singlemode fiber to improve the overall dispersion on the span. Utilizing higher-powered
amplifiers is the method to increase the distances of the fiber spans on non-repeatered systems that do not require undersea amplifiers.
What gets a little confusing is the optical fibers
have performance overlaps, where you can enhance the capabilities of the fiber by adding
special fibers and/or electronics to address the
distance and dispersion limitations of the fiber.
Although there are special, low loss singlemode
fiber designs used in long spans up to 400 km,
the majority of the systems spans supporting
offshore platforms fall in the 100-150 km range.
Oil and gas fields that lie beyond the 350-400
km distance require the use of undersea amplifiers, and will use NZDF in the cable system. As
you can see, there are options and considerations when selecting a fiber to support offshore
platforms. There are cost differences between
the systems, with the higher bandwidth, longer
span systems being offered at a premium. To
serve large geographically disperse fields, that
are not in close proximately to land, the system costs are higher, with fewer alternatives.
The developers of optical fiber, optical
components, and optical systems have made
major advancements in offering high bandwidth solutions to communications markets
around the world. With most of the world’s
embedded fiber being standard singlemode,
much of the design efforts are focused on maximizing the performance of this type of optical
fiber. NZDF is widely deployed throughout the
long haul terrestrial and undersea market, but
most of the fiber (in the ground) is still in the
telephone companies’ regional and local backbone networks. Demonstrating how well system
37
performs on standard singlemode fiber is a key
selling point for equipment vendors, touting
the highest speeds, over the most wavelengths,
and at the longest distances. Over the last few
years the manufacturers of optical fiber have
made advances in supporting the systems designers goals (speed, wavelengths, and distance).
OFS (formally the Optical Fiber Solutions division of Lucent Technologies) is a market leader
in the field of optical fiber design and manufacturing.
Undersea, terrestrial, and enterprise (customer premise), are the market segments where
OFS has excelled in the introduction of enhanced fiber offerings. OFS is also a leader in
design and manufacturing of DCFs that are
widely used to enhance the performance of optical systems.
The optical parameters that were covered
in this article (and many others that were not
included), are critical to meeting the transmission requirements of today’s leading systems
vendor who are providing communications solutions for the offshore energy platform market. Based on the network variables that were
reviewed, and the options available for delivering optical connections to the offshore platforms, fiber manufacturers are meeting this
need.
OFS has a full line of products that can
meet the needs of these various systems and
environments.
38
Vessel Automatic Identification
Systems (AIS) for Oilfield Operations
By Graham P. Cooper, GeoSoft Solutions Manager, Fugro Survey Ltd.
On the 1st of July 2004 it was to have become
mandatory under IMO/SOLAS regulations for
the majority of seagoing vessels of greater
than 300 tons to be equipped with an AIS unit
when on international passage. A six-month
extension has now been granted. An AIS unit
is very similar to an aircraft’s transponder and
emits dynamic, voyage and vessel related
information at regular intervals when
underway or at anchor. An AIS unit operates
in ship-to-ship mode for collision avoidance;
ship-to-shore mode for coastal States to obtain
information about a ship and its cargo; and
as a tool in vessel traffic schemes for traffic
management. The advantage of AIS is that
ships can be alerted to the presence of other
ships, and coastal authorities can pinpoint the
position and identify ships.
In its simplest form an AIS unit comprises a
GPS antenna and cable, a transponder/control
unit and VHF aerial. The system allows messages
to decode, record, analyse and display AIS data
to be transmitted automatically between other
over a number of different background charts
vessels or shore stations equipped with an AIS
and drawing formats. AIS is of benefit to the
unit.
Typically, signals
can be received up to a disReproduced by permission of the Controller of Her
tance of about twenty
Majesty’s
Stationery
Office
and
the
UK
Hydrographic Office. www.ukho.gov.uk
nautical miles. The frequency of transmission of
dynamic data is dependant upon vessel activity,
speed and rate of turn.
When certain conditions
apply, position data can
be transmitted as often as
every two seconds from a
vessel.
GeoSoft Solutions, a
division of Fugro Survey
Not to be used for navigation
Ltd., Aberdeen, has implemented a software pack- Figure 1: Vessel superimposed on a background S57 chart having passed through a
age called ChartViewAIS target zone in the Irish Sea.
39
maritime community as a whole, but can also
be used in the Offshore Engineering and Marine Geographic Information Industries for a
number of applications.
A cable company can use ChartViewAIS
data in both a dynamic and static environment. During cable lay operations the system
will give an additional level of security to the
cable-lay vessel, the cable and the oil company assets on and below the sea surface. It
will also allow vessel traffic to be monitored,
recorded and analysed to ensure that vessels
and their activities are not endangering the
cable after it has been installed. This is often
an initiative that marine underwriters welcome.
Additional value will be gained with
ChartViewAIS if the background charts can
be oilfield or cable asset charts that are enriched with attribute data. As an example if
a wellhead’s position and the interconnecting pipelines and umbilical back to a sub-sea
manifold are accurately known, then a restricted zone can be embedded within the oilfield drawing.
When a vessel equipped with AIS
breaches the restricted zone a number of
events can be triggered. If a monitoring AIS
unit is mounted on a platform or guard vessel
close by, an alarm can be raised within
ChartViewAIS and a series of actions instigated.
These can range
from visual and audio
alerts,
to
e-mail
messaging.
There are cable
and pipeline landing
zones around the
world where a lot of
other maritime activities occur. The installation of a shore based
ChartViewAIS
unit
and the recording of
the data will go
someway towards benefiting the security of
assets
in
these
congested areas. Traffic
analysis can then be
combined with parFigure 2: Vessel superimposed over an oilfield plan.
ticular weather patthe world are on geodetic ellipsoids estabterns and an improved measurement of risk
lished long before the WGS 84 ellipsoid was
can be determined.
developed.
If the cable community is to use the AIS
These have been in use by the oil and gas
data to aid and add value to their operations,
industry for many years and thus require that
various factors require consideration. These
the AIS data be converted from WGS 84 to the
include the geodetic datum that a cable
local datum that is in use in a geographic
project is based on, the projection in use and
region.
the frequency of the data that is being outAnother consideration is accuracy. The
put within VHF range of the cable vessel.
accuracy of positional data can be improved
Geographically, the major oil and gas
by differential GPS data being injected in to
exploration and production regions around
40
time, many other
users will see the
benefits of the
system, particularly with regard
to safety at sea
and the risk of
collision between
small craft and
larger vessels.
Already the
leisure industry
in north America
is taking note and
many small craft
in the St. Lawrence
Seaway
have AIS units
installed. AdmitFigure 3: Vessels displayed transiting the coast of Norfolk off the UK.
tedly some are
only receiving units, but as the cost of units
the control unit. Generally though other
comes down, transmitting units will be
vessels are indicating that their positional
installed.
accuracy is poorer than 10 metres, perhaps
something in the order of 15 to 20 metres.
This is not only a function of the GPS
receiver within the AIS unit, but also the accurate determination of where the antenna
has been installed on a merchant marine
vessel.
People in the past have put forward the
very valid argument that not all vessels will
be equipped with AIS. This is true, but over
Graham Cooper is
the manager of
GeoSoft Solutions, a
group within Fugro
Survey Ltd., which is
based in Great Yarmouth in the UK.
Graham has twenty
nine years experience in the land and
hydrographic survey industries and in recent
years has concentrated on creating a GIS
centre of excellence. He has presented papers at Submarine Communication conferences and has been a member of the committee which produced the ‘Guidelines on the
Use of Multibeam Echosounders for Offshore
Survey” for IMCA. He was also a member of
the committee that produced the draft recommendations for the “Minimum Technical
Requirements for the Acquisition and Reporting of Submarine Cable Route Surveys”
for the ICPC.
Conclusion
New AIS based applications will come to the
fore in the future and there are exciting and
demanding opportunities for all in the
telecoms and oil and gas industries. Some
cable installers will want to record AIS data
continuously, allowing them the capability to
replay and analyse the data, others will only
be interested in viewing the real time scenario
as the cable is deployed.
Whatever mode a company chooses, AIS
and the information that it makes available
will have a significant impact in the years to
come, upon the marine, telecommunications and offshore energy industries.
41
THE CABLESHIPS
A global guide to the latest known locations of the world’s cableships*, as at September 2004
Vessel Name
ALBERT J. MYER
ARCOS
ASEAN EXPLORER
ASEAN RESTORER
ATLANTIC GUARDIAN
BADARO
BARON
BOLD ENDEAVOUR
BOLD ENDURANCE
BOURBON REEL
BOURBON SKAGERRAK
C. S. AGILE
C. S. SOVEREIGN
C. S. WAVE MERCURY
CABLE INNOVATOR
CABLE PROTECTOR
CABLE RETRIEVER
CERTAMEN
CHAMAREL
DISCOVERY
DOCK EXPRESS 20
ECLIPSE
ELEKTRON
ETISALAT
FU HAI
GIULIO VERNE
Ship Status
U.S. Naval Reserve
In Service/Commission
GT Speed
4012 12.5
3790
8
14988 14.5
11156
16
7172 14.4
12518 13.8
9000
0
9388 12.6
9418 14.3
3186
11
7172
10
9402
13
11242 13.5
10105
16
14277
11
2935
0
11026
16
4983
14
8575 16.5
8248
12
14793
15
7114
13
1628
0
2221
13
6292
14
10617
10
Group Owner
Government of the USA
Bohlen & Doyen Verwaltungs GmbH
Singapore Telecommunications Pte. Ltd.
Global Marine Systems Ltd.
DOCKWISE N.V.
Secunda Marine Services Ltd.
Bourbon Offshore Norway AS
Havila Shipping AS
British Telecommunications plc
Italmare S.p.A.
France Telecom
N.V. Friary Ocean Surveyor
DOCKWISE N.V.
Cal Dive International Inc.
Statnett Entrepenor AS
Emirates Telecommunications Corp.
Government of the PRC
Operator
Government of the USA
Bohlen & Doyen Verwaltungs GmbH
ASEAN Cableship Pte. Ltd.
DOCKWISE N.V.
British Telecommunications plc
Italmare S.p.A.
France Telecom
N.V. Friary Ocean Surveyor
DOCKWISE N.V.
Cal Dive International Inc.
Statnett Entrepenor AS
Government of the PRC
V. Ships Monaco S.A.M.
Arrival Date Sailed Date
Port
Country
08/03/2004
Singapore
Republic of Singapore
07/26/2004
Singapore
07/29/2004
Portland(GBR)
United Kingdom
Singapore
07/25/2004
Mobile
United States of America
07/18/2004
Port Alberni
Canada
Dover Strait
United Kingdom
08/14/2004
Singapore
08/04/2004
Alexandria(EGY)
Arab Republic of Egypt
Malaga
Spain
Singapore
07/24/2004
08/12/2004
07/16/2004
08/14/2004
07/25/2004
08/12/2004
07/18/2004
08/12/2004
07/17/2004
07/18/2004
Schiedam
Netherlands
07/26/2004
07/26/2004
Kuwait
Kuwait
08/06/2004
08/08/2004
Singapore
08/05/2004
08/05/2004
Thursday Is.
Australia
*1,000 tons and over
42
Vessel Name
Ship Status
GLOBAL SENTINEL
HEIMDAL
HENRY P. LADING
ILE DE BATZ
ILE DE BREHAT
ILE DE RE
ILE DE SEIN
Laid-Up
JASMINE PROTECTOR In Service/Commission
KDD OCEAN LINK
KDD PACIFIC LINK
KNIGHT
KOUKI MARU
KOUSHIN MARU
LEON THEVENIN
LODBROG
MAERSK DEFENDER In Service/Commission
MAERSK RECORDER Laid-Up
MAERSK RELIANCE In Service/Commission
MAERSK RESPONDER In Service/Commission
MANTA
MIDNIGHT CARRIER In Service/Commission
MIDNIGHT WRANGLER In Service/Commission
MISS CLEMENTINE In Service/Commission
MISS MARIE
NEWTON
NIWA
NORMAND CLIPPER In Service/Commission
NORMAND CUTTER In Service/Commission
OCEAN CHALLENGER In Service/Commission
OCEANIC PEARL
OCEANIC PRINCESS In Service/Commission
OCEANIC VIKING
GT Speed
13201
15
10471
16
1631
0
13973 15.4
13978 15.4
14091
15
13978 15.4
1558
6.5
9510
15
7960
13
14149
0
9190 13.5
4822
12
4845
15
10243 14.5
5746
16
6292
14
6292
14
6292
14
2723
15
2670
13
5623
11
3637
9
3639
0
2779
15
13201
15
12291
15
12291
15
5235 16.7
7429 13.5
11121
0
9075
18
Group Owner
Transoceanic Cable Ship Co. Inc.
Alcatel Submarine Networks Marine A/S
Operator
Arrival Date
08/16/2004
Jydsk Dykkerfirma ApS
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs S.A.S.
08/13/2004
Societe Anonyme Louis Dreyfus et Compagnie Louis Dreyfus Armateurs S.A.S.
08/06/2004
Societe Anonyme Louis Dreyfus et Compagnie Louis Dreyfus Armateurs S.A.S.
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs S.A.S.
Jasmine Submarine Telecoms Co. Ltd.
Kokusai Cable Ship Co. Ltd.
Kokusai Cable Ship Co. Ltd.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd.
08/05/2004
DOCKWISE N.V.
DOCKWISE N.V.
Dokai Marine Systems Ltd.
France Telecom
France Telecom
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
A. P. Moller
Jade-Dienst GmbH & Co. KG
Jade-Dienst GmbH & Co. KG
08/15/2004
Torch Inc.
Torch Inc.
Torch Offshore
Torch Offshore
Brooklyn Shipping Ltd.
07/28/2004
08/13/2004
Government of The United Kingdom
Government of The United Kingdom
Emirates Telecoms & Marine Services
Solstad Shipping A/S
Rovde Shipping AS
08/03/2004
James Fisher and Sons Plc
James Fisher (Shipping Services) Ltd.
James Fisher and Sons Plc
James Fisher (Shipping Services) Ltd.
Eidesvik AS
Eidesvik AS
Sailed Date
07/29/2004
Port
Country
Portland(OR USA) United States of America
08/17/2004
Keelung
Taiwan
08/13/2004
Dover Strait
United Kingdom
Brest
France
Wakamatsu
Japan
Wilhelmshaven
Germany
Singapore
Singapore
Stavanger
Norway
08/07/2004
08/03/2004
43
Vessel Name
PACIFIC GUARDIAN
PERTINACIA
PETER FABER
PLDT
PLEIJEL
POLAR KING
PROVIDER 1
RAYMOND CROZE
RENE DESCARTES
SEGERO
SETOUCHI SURVEYOR
SIR ERIC SHARP
SKANDI NEPTUNE
STANELCO
SUBARU
TEAM OMAN
TELIRI
TENEO
TETSUKAI No. 5
THALIS
TOISA PISCES
TRINITY SUPPORTER
TYCO DECISIVE
TYCO DEPENDABLE
TYCO DURABLE
TYCO RESOLUTE
TYCO RESPONDER
TYCOM RELIANCE
UMM AL ANBER
WAVE SENTINEL
WAVE VENTURE
Ship Status
GT Speed
6133
10
12593
14
2854
0
1706 13.5
1650
11
12867 15.5
10493
14
4845
15
13864
15
8323
15
1264
12
6141 13.5
6318
14
1692
12
9557 13.2
4008
10
8345 14.5
3051 14.5
259
7
1025
11
6492 14.5
7374 15.83
12184 13.9
12184 13.9
12130 13.9
12184 13.9
12184 13.9
12184 13.9
7750
18
12330 18.25
10076
16
Group Owner
Italmare S.p.A.
Government of Japan
Televerket
Rieber Shipping AS
Allseas Group S.A.
France Telecom
France Telecom
Korea Submarine Telecom Ltd.
District Offshore ASA
Alcatel Contracting Norway AS
Nico International UAE
Italmare S.p.A.
Government of The Republic of Greece
Brokerage & Management Corp.
Operator
Arrival Date Sailed Date
07/29/2004
Italmare S.p.A.
Tele Danmark A/S
NTT World Engineering Marine Co. Ltd.
Televerket
Rieber Shipping AS
Marine Survey Contractors S.A.
France Telecom
France Telecom
Korea Submarine Telecom Ltd.
07/26/2004 07/26/2004
Fugro Geodetic
07/17/2004 07/28/2004
DOF Management AS
Alcatel Contracting Norway AS
Subaru Ship Ltd.
Nico International UAE
Italmare S.p.A.
07/20/2004
Tyco Marine S.A.
K.K. Hosokawa Sangyo
Government of The Republic of Greece
Sealion Shipping Ltd.
Trinity Supporter Inc.
08/03/2004
Port
Fiji
Country
Fiji
Keelung
Taiwan
Kholmsk
Russian Federation
Catania
Italy
Singapore
44
International Submarine Cable Systems Map
2004 Edition
SubTel Forum and T Soja and
Associates are making available the
industry’s first comprehensive
worldwide submarine cables map in
over three tumultuous years.
•
Accurate and detailed picture of the
world’s major existing and planned
submarine cables
•
Landing point references on the
Caribbean, Atlantic, Pacific,
Mediterranean, Asian and SubAsian coasts
•
Color distinguished cable routing of
all major operational or under
construction systems
Available laminated for wall mounting and
mark-ups, or in electronic form, the
Submarine Telecoms Forum International
Submarine Cable Systems Map is today’s
“must-have” system planning resource.
Submarine
Telecoms
FORUM
Price
Printed Version (972 x 714mm)
Electronic pdf Version
Both Printed and Electronic Versions
$190 inc shipping
$350 inc shipping
$465 inc shipping
www.subtelforum.com/catalog/maps_279992_products.htm
Or call +1 703 444 2527
45
Letter to a friend
from Jean Devos
My Dear Friend
SMW4 casualty.
I feel very sad for OCC who was forced recently to call for Japanese government protection, a kind of Chapter 11 process. OCC is in
real difficulty – No order!
As you know, I was in charge of the submarine cable production in Calais from 1965
to 1977. During that period I developed
friendly relations with all of my counterparts
around the world. At a certain stage, we had
even created a sort of “cable club.” We were
holding regular meetings attended by the top
managers of OCC, Simplex, STC, Pirelli and
Alcatel Cable. It was very pleasant and useful
to meet people sharing the same culture and
facing similar difficulties and challenges. My
very first visit to OCC was in 1965, in
Yokohama, a visit which gained my admiration forever. My very last one was for the Kota
Kyushu new factory opening ceremony in
1996. As a guest coming from abroad, I had
the privilege to break open the traditional sake
cask! I dare say that OCC has been the best
submarine cable maker of our community.
Their history deserves our respect and I only
hope that they will find a way through their
present difficulties. The closing of OCC is in
no one’s real interest!
You may recall my message of my January 2004 letter:
“SMW4 looks like an oasis in the middle of
the desert! …I can put myself in the shoes of the
suppliers and see the importance of such project. A
buoy!! A must be in!! Not being part of this action
will be dangerous since the market needs several
more years to pick up!! This project will undoubtedly play an active role in shaping the future supplier industry. Thank God and geography this cable is structured in several segments and then is
“splittable “between several suppliers if the purchasers want! All the parties involved here, purchasers and suppliers, needs for sure to protect their
short term interest. But they have also the opportunity to work for the long term general interest of
our industry.”
46
This could have been easily achieved,
but the SMW4 owners made a different decision. They could have the same good prices
and have their project being built by the full
industry as a way to protect their long term
interests.
They even neglected to consider the engineering effort OCC had spent to come with
an updated version of their good cable, developed to fit the need of the future market.
They rejected it for the false reason that it was
something “new”. In reality, there was nothing really new there!
A consortium of carriers should not just
be a “buyer”! During the SMW4 evaluation
process I have done my best to draw the attention of the key managers in the owner’s
camp, and make sure they were conscious of
their responsibility. I got sympathy but no
result.
My friend, is it not amazing to see this:
The people who claim the most the necessity
and the benefit of competition are the same
who work hard to decrease the number of competitors.
Can you help me to understand?
Online e-commerce
MARKET PLACE
The resource for industry reports, newsletters and cool stuff!
MARK
ETPLA
ADDIT
CE
WANTIONS
ED
Industry data from:
Jean Devos
Submarcom Consulting
www.subtelforum.com/catalog/
47
48
Diary
FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES
AND EXHIBITIONS
14-16 September 2004
Offshore Communications 2004 Houston, Texas USA,
www.offshorecoms.com
US Maritime Security Expo New York City, NY USA
www.maritimesecurityexpo.com
Submarine Networks World 2004 Singapore, www.carriersworld.com
10-15 October 2004
SEG International Exposition & 74th Annual Meeting
Denver, Colorado USA, www.seg.org/meetings/calendar/
25-29 October 2004
Offshore Survey Workshop Houston, Texas USA
www.mc-seminars.com
26-27 October 2004
Offshore Positioning & Mapping Conference Houston, Texas USA
www.mc-seminars.com
2-4 November 2004
Hydro4 Galway, Ireland, www.hydrographicsociety.org
9-12 November 2004
Oceans 2004 MTS/IEEE Kobe, Japan
www.oceans-technoocean2004.com
16-19 January 2005
Pacific Telecom Conference 2005 Honolulu, Hawaii USA, www.ptc.org
14-16 February 2005
Underwater Intervention 2005 New Orleans, Louisiana USA
www.underwaterintervention.com
49

STF Sept 04.pmd - Submarine Telecoms Forum

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