The Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro will host the GVF Oil & Gas Communications Brazil 2011: The Digital Oilfield & Gasfield Imperative, Onshore, Offshore, Deepwater conference over the period 19th & 20th April, which is being held in association with Schlumberger, Intelsat, Gilat Satellite Networks, Hughes, Telespazio, and C-Com Satellite Systems.
Martin Jarrold, GVF Chief of International Programme Development, and Chairman of the Oil & Gas Communications Series, commented that “Brazil’s major centre of manufacturing production and service sector industries, including, of course, the high-growth telecommunications sector as well as the oil & gas industry, is an obvious choice of location for a Latin American dialogue between the providers of communications networking solutions and the users of such solutions in the upstream exploration and production (E&P) segment of hydrocarbon-based energy supplies.”
Rio de Janeiro state is the largest oil-production region in Brazil, containing about 80 percent of the country’s total production, with most crude production being offshore in very deep water. A large proportion of Brazil's natural gas production occurs from offshore fields in the Campos Basin in the state. Discoveries in Brazil's offshore subsalt have the potential to significantly increase oil production in the country, as well as to boost Brazil's total natural gas reserves by 50 percent, with estimates indicating that spending on investments in further oil and natural gas exploration and production in Brazil could amount to US$72 billion by as soon as 2012.
Such E&P projects as the Tupi Field in Santos Basin are forecast to yield 5-8 billion barrels of recoverable reserves (oil and natural gas volumes combined), but are located in a subsalt zone averaging 18,000 feet below the surface of the ocean. Numerous other subsalt discoveries have resulted in analyst estimates of some 56 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Managing Partner of EMP, Paul Stahl, added “The difficulties in accessing these reserves, resulting from both the large depths and pressures involved mean that there are many technical hurdles that must be overcome, requiring major new infrastructure and associated communications networking capabilities.There is, therefore, a clear rationale for a Brazil-oriented oil & gas communications event, one which will deliver an ICT-oriented dialogue at the crucial interface of an elevated demand for cutting-edge networking solutions by the energy vertical and the supply of those solutions from the communications industry.”
The Rio de Janeiro conference list of applications and connectivity imperatives to be discussed will include ICT aspects of: safety systems provision on oil & gas installations at sea; and, the implications for E&P ICT in the Brazilian region of the oil & gas patch arising from the continuing impact of the only quite recently suspended deep-water drilling moratoria in other hydrocarbon extraction ocean regions. Other key theme additions will include the enhanced application of satellite-based security provisions related to the use of “Cloud”-based data traffic networking.
Companies contributing to the conference dialogue will include many of the most important players in the oil & gas sector communications and networking solutions end-user community, and in the satellite industry service and technology solutions vendor community, including: Petrobras, Schlumberger, Intelsat, Gilat Satellite Networks, Hughes, Telespazio, C-Com Satellite Systems, Hispamar, KVH Industries, Baker Hughes, and Star One., with other key companies registering their intention to contribute on a daily basis.
The Brazil conference programme will feature the following session themes:
Day One – 19th April
Understanding the 21st Century Digital Oilfield
Onshore, Offshore, Deep & Ultra-Deep Water E&P: Redefining the Mission Critical Communication Requirement
First Mile/Last Mile Networking Solution Innovations in Oil & Gas
Development, Deployment & Return on Investment: Advanced Networking Communications Infrastructures to Realise Brazil’s Deepwater Reserves
Real-Time Data Monitoring, Data Management Remote Collaboration & Operations Support Centres
New Training Dynamics for Oil & Gas Communications in Brazil
Leveraging the Technology Advantage of Stabilized and Ruggedized Satellite Antennas in the Oil & Gas E&P Environment
Cloud Computing and Future Oil & Gas Industry Networking: The Satellite Communications Interface
Day Two – 20th April
The Satellite Operator in the Brazilian Oil & Gas Patch: Planning Capacity Provision & Deploying Service Supply
Evolving Commercial Oil & Gas Applications to Satellite & Satellite-Hybrid Communications Environments
Defining the Wireless World of the FPSO & Semi-Submersible Environment
The Business Mission Critical Link: Maintaining Oil & Gas Communications When Disaster Strikes
Out-of-band Control & Monitoring Solutions for the Oil & Gas Patch
Oil & Gas Communications and Social Responsibility: Merging Community & Profitability in the Patch
Mr. Jarrold has also commented, “This programme will illustrate that mission critical operational success in the upstream E&P environment is dependent on access to the most efficient ICTs, and to the wealth of sophisticated applications these technologies bring to the disposal of the teams of geologists, geophysicists, drilling engineers, seismic data analysts, etc., etc., who locate new oil & gas reserves and get them out of the ground and from beneath the ocean floor through the collection of massive amounts of disparate data in multiple formats (including GPS, acoustic, compass and other sensor data) and using the information for predictive analysis. Widely spread and remotely located experts can see data as it is collected in real time and can determine the size and potential value of a payload before any actual drilling begins, a capability that can significantly reduce the amount of time and other resources wasted on drilling sites that don't have a strong yield potential.”
He further added, “In Brazil, exploration for new hydrocarbon reserves has moved increasingly to dangerous, difficult (and otherwise very expensive) environments, where the extreme physical obstacles are as equally challenging as the investment imperatives that must be faced in the remote deployment of drilling equipment.”
