Future Success of Oil & Gas Industry to Turn on Communications Solutions Demanding 100 Times Today’s Bandwidth Use

London, UK, May 2, 2014 – Maximizing the successful operation of the oil & gas rigs of the future will depend on bandwidth usage level of 100 times that of today. This was the analysis of Brastrading, the Florida, USA, based company which provides engineering and high-level logistics, services, equipment and worldwide telecom solutions for the oil & gas market. Multi-path communications, applications-aware networks, universal device IP-connectivity – all be required to improve rig on-board situational awareness, enable faster decision-making, facilitate real-time remote control, increase automation, lower operating costs, and create a safer working environment.

This analysis was presented during the GVF Oil & Gas Communications Brazil 2014: Big Oil, Big Data: The Deepwater Ocean Expanse conference (O&GCommsBrazil 2014, www.uk-emp.co.uk/current-events/o-g-comms-brazil-2014/) – the 20th event in the series, and the 4th to address the communications networking imperatives of the Brazilian region of the global ‘oil & gas patch’ – which took place in Rio de Janeiro on 15th & 16th April 2014.

Yet, already, the oil and gas industry, and the satellite solutions community, are turning their collective attention to the next event in the global series, the 21st, and the 7th to be held in Aberdeen. As at the above date, a very strong line-up of organisations, speakers, and panellists have stepped-forward to contribute to GVF Oil & Gas Communications Europe 2014: Big Oil, Big Data – North Sea, Atlantic Margin, Arctic Ocean, taking place on Tuesday 13th to Wednesday 14th May, at the Marriott Hotel, Dyce, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Commenting on the Aberdeen event programme, Martin Jarrold, GVF Chief of International Program Development and Conference Chairman said, “O&GCommsEurope 2014 already has a fantastic speaker/panellist line-up, perhaps the best-ever, ready to examine the full range of satellite-based communications, and integrated satellite-terrestrial hybrid communications solutions, to which the oil & gas industry turns to play a vital role in providing the essential connectivity and access to vital applications.”

The Aberdeen line-up is scheduled to include:

  • Access Partnership: Brendan O’Mahony, Director, Market Access
  • Advantech Wireless: Mark Lambert, VP Sales & Marketing, Managing Director, EMEA Region
  • Arthur D Little: Russell Pell, Principal, Strategy & Operations Management, Energy; Richard Swinford, Partner, Telecoms & Media Strategy
  • Avanti Communications: David Bestwick, Technical Director
  • Baker Hughes: Sion Judah, Remote Connectivity Coordinator, Field Communications Services
  • C-COM Satellite Systems: Drew Klein, Director, International Business Development
  • Cobham SatCom: Chris Insall, Manager, Commercial Programmes, SeaTel
  • EMC: Speaker name & job title to be confirmed
  • Gilat Satellite Networks: Yair Maor, Executive Director, Business Development & Vertical Sales
  • Harris CapRock: Speaker name & job title to be confirmed
  • Hermes Datacomms: Adam Torry, Business Development
  • Inmarsat & RigNet: joint presentation from Astrid van de Ven, Director, Market Development, Energy, Global Xpress & Andrew Buyers, UK VP & GM, RigNet
  • Integrasys: Alvaro Sanchez, Sales Manager, Satellite Monitoring Systems
  • Intelsat: Trevor Willoughby, Senior Key Account Director
  • ITC Global: Richard Elson, Vice President, Sales & Business Development, EMEA
  • MTN: Chris Leber, Executive Vice President of Commercial Business Development
  • ND SatCom: Dr Gerold Jäger-Waldau, Product & Solutions Management
  • NetScout Systems: Jay Buckett, Sales Engineer, Unified Communications; David Potter, Account Manager, Unified Communications
  • Romantis: Dr Harald Stange, Managing Director/CEO
  • SES: Simon Gatty-Saunt, Regional Vice President, Europe, Data & Global Mobility Services
  • Signalhorn: Guillermo Bosch, Vice President
  • SpeedCast: Speaker name & job title to be confirmed
  • Telenor Satellite Broadcasting: Michael Carter, Sales Director, Network and Data Services
  • Telesat: Speaker name & job title to be confirmed
  • TruPhone: Sam Murray, Business Development Manager
  • Winegard: Rory Eddings, Director, International Sales, Enterprise

The speakers and panellists from EMC, Harris CapRock, SpeedCast, and Telesat, and are soon to be announced, and additional organisations are joining the above listing on a daily basis.

Paul Stahl, Managing Partner of EMP, added “This year, we will be using extra space in order to accommodate a classroom set-up and facilitate a ‘less-condensed’ environment for our delegates.  We will also be including inter-active panel sessions in order to utilise the considerable expertise in the audience and create a generally inclusive situation – giving everyone in the room the opportunity to drive the programme.  The audience at this conference is among the most knowledgeable and pro-active of any that we work with anywhere in the world – we see that as a unique asset from which we intend to leverage maximum value.”

GVF Oil & Gas Communications Europe 2014: Big Oil, Big Data – North Sea, Atlantic Margin, Arctic Ocean is sponsored by Intelsat, Telenor Satellite Broadcasting, Kymeta, SES, ITC Global, Truphone, Netscout, Emerging Markets Communications (EMC) and SpeedCast. Further information on the developing conference programme may be viewed at www.uk-emp.co.uk/current-events/o-g-comms-europe-2014/. Alternatively, email either Martin Jarrold at GVF – martin.jarrold@gvf.org – or Paul Stahl at EMP – paul.stahl@uk-emp.co.uk.

Due to a severe South Atlantic storm, and related flight cancellations and delays between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on 15th-16th April, the previous conference programme in the series – GVF Oil & Gas Communications Brazil 2014: Big Oil, Big Data: The Deepwater Ocean Expanse – was subject to last-minute changes of featured speakers and to the speaker schedule. Despite adversity, the conference was a tremendous success with a total of 75 attending delegates hearing from 18 speakers on a range of themes comprising the interface of oil and gas industry usage of the communications solutions provided by the satellite community. The conference presentations are now available for download in PDF format from the following web page www.uk-emp.co.uk/current-events/o-gcomms-brazil-pro/.

  • On Day One the combined subjects of ‘High-Capacity, High-Throughput: New Satellite Systems Meet Big Oil’s Big Data’, and ‘The View from Earth Orbit: Satellite Operator Capacity Supply & Oil & Gas Patch Capacity Demand in a Big Data Ecosystem’ was analysed by Márcio Brasil, Sales Director, Intelsat; Antonio Iannelli, Engineering Manager, StarOne; and, Jesús V. Alegría, LATAM Sales Director, Land and Marine Systems, Cobham SATCOM.
  • From Schlumberger, Leonardo Toco, Well Site Connectivity Manager, Latin America, defined ‘The Real-Time Mission Critical Communication Requirement for Deepwater E&P’.
  • Embratel’s Renato Campos, IT & Data Centre Solution Architect, provided invaluable insights into ‘Value Added Services, the Cloud & Datacentre Operations for Oil & Gas’. This was followed by an analysis of the evolution of the satellite industry and of the O3b satellite constellation as a solution for oil and gas communications requirements between the northern and southern 45 degree parallels of latitude, provided by Jurandir Pitsch, Vice President, Market Development, Latin America, of SES.
  • Mario Santos, Sales Director, Advantech Wireless, profiled the latest ‘Cutting-Edge SatComs Solutions in the South American Oil & Gas Patch’, leading into a focus on ‘Leveraging Antenna Technology Advantages: Stabilised, Ruggedized & Auto-Deploy Technology in the Oil & Gas E&P Environment’, presented by Rory Eddings, Director International Sales, Enterprise, Winegard Company, and Márcio Esteves, Director, Mareste Equipamentos e Serviços de Telecomunicação Ltda.
  • The first day concluded with Iñigo López, Diretor de Vendas e Marketing, Arycom, investigating ‘M2M in O&G E&P: Where Only Satellite Makes THE Difference in Production & Transportation’.
  • Day Two began with Waldo Araujo Russo, Peregrino Telecom Advisor, StatOil, and Leandro Campos Tavares, Telecom Division Director, Brastrading, assessing in depth the ‘New Ka band HTS Solutions for Offshore Communications’.
  • An innovative addition to the series programmes was provided by Flávio Pinto, Sales Manager Brazil, Gilat Satellite Networks, who presented his perspectives on ‘Intelligence, Security & Reconnaissance (ISR) in the O&G E&P Remote Space’.
  • Field Communication Services Coordinator with Baker Hughes, Celina Morais, offered a detailed analysis of latest developments in the fields of ‘Data Monitoring, Data Management & Remote Collaboration’.
  • ‘Out-of-band Control & Monitoring Solutions for the Oil & Gas Patch’ was evaluated from the two perspectives, that of Raffael Malta, Special Projects Manager, Hughes Telecomunicações do Brasil, and Iñigo López, Diretor de Vendas e Marketing, Arycom.
  • A profile of ‘Radio Frequency Interference in the Oil & Gas Space: Industry Prevention & Mitigation Strategies’ comprised the concluding session of the conference programme with J.R. Cristóvam Nascimento, Chief Executive Officer, Unisat Engenharia de Telecomunicações & Correspondent/Chief Trainer for Brazil, GVF, Martin Jarrold, Chief, International Programme Development, GVF, and Rory Eddings, Director International Sales, Enterprise, Winegard Company.

The conference program was jointly chaired and moderated by J.R. Cristóvam Nascimento, and Martin Jarrold.