more data flowing from offshore to onshore; while administrative voice and data has an asymmetrical flow in the other direction. More administrative data flows towards the offshore facilities due to personnel moral and welfare requirements, i.e., offshore personnel want their highspeed Internet connectivity. There are several major types of offshore facilities. The largest are the manned production platforms, the Floating Production Storage and Offloading units (FPSOs); and the Floating Liquefied Natural Gas facilities (FLNGs). For this discussion, we will say that the offshore facility requires 100Gbps, bidirectional connectivity, which is easily handled with today’s 100Gbps, multiple wavelength systems. Today’s systems can transmit 270 wavelengths on one fiber pair, each wavelength carrying 100Gbps, i.e., 27Tbps. For our purposes, this is “infinite” bandwidth. The offshore locations will be dictated by the geographical locations of the Oil & Gas reservoirs. These geographical locations can be anywhere from close to the shore (shallow water depth) to off the continental shelf (deep water depth). The facilities will be integrated with the subsurface infrastructure. The marine topology is a major consideration for locating the topside facilities. For the production platforms, a corridor will be established for the transfer pipeline(s) from offshore to onshore. Ideally, an adjacent communications corridor will be established for the submarine fiber cable. This will allow for the best protection of the cable given all the subsea activities that are part of the field development. For the FPSOs and FLNGs, there won’t be a pipeline corridor to onshore as the production is offloaded directly from the FPSO or FLNG. The submarine cable route to shore will depend upon the sea bottom topology and commercial considerations of crossing (or skirting) adjacent lease blocks. Ideally, there would be two paths to the shore for redundancy. If not, there should be at least two fiber pairs in the cable (four fibers). The following tasks should be considered to establish the viability of the project: • Identify all available cable routes in the region that could be utilized for connectivity • Document all critical background information regarding any existing fiber systems – when built, technology employed, expected end-of-life, etc. • Engage all identified fiber operators in discussions to identify spare capacity on all their cable systems, and the carrier’s interconnect requirements • Review commercial terms of potential partners • Identify Service Level Agreement expectations for 100Gbps leased services
• Solicit interconnect proposals from interested carriers • Explore potential teaming agreements with operators of global fiber networks to gauge their interest in acquiring capacity.
CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS
Submarine fiber optic systems are expensive to install, as well as to operate and maintain. Given the location of the Oil & Gas fields, other neighboring assets, and potential synergistic relationships, there are several business models that can be considered.
OPTION 1 – PRIVATE CABLE OWNERSHIP
Private ownership requires the company to assume all the responsibility and risk for the system. The company must undertake the fiber optic system like any other major Oil & Gas project. The company will have a large capital outlay followed by yearly operations and maintenance expenses. The advantage of private cable ownership is that the company is in control of a vital aspect of its operations, i.e., its communications.
OPTION 2 – LEASE SERVICE
If another company owns and operates a nearby submarine cable, it would be advantageous to lease communication service from them. This would save the capital expense of installing the system. The operating expenses (i.e., yearly lease costs) would be greater than private cable ownership. The major risk of this model is that the company would not have direct control of the communications facilities. The SEPTEMBER 2018 | ISSUE 102
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