Oil and gas
Supporting oil and gas
across the supply chain
The oil and gas industries rely on effective communications for safe and efficient
operations right across the supply chain, from below ground to petrol pump, creating
the need for a number of high-integrity systems and associated applications, as
Richard Martin reports
We need oil, and will
continue to do so for
some time. Looking
at the entire supply
chain, exploration
teams will need local communications,
as well as connecting to drones or
satellites to send data for analysis. In the
construction of rigs and pipelines, the
teams will need to ensure safety along
with the smooth movement
of equipment. Once operational,
pipelines can require long-range
automated communications.
In the refinery, automated
monitoring can reduce manpower,
although there will still be personnel
needing radios when working where
explosive hazards exist. Refineries and
storage close to populated areas place a
high premium on safety and publicalerting
systems. Drivers of delivery
vehicles can be connected through
radios that identify their location for
effective management.
Russia and beyond with wells, refineries
and retail facilities. For refining and
other facilities, TISSCOM has installed
a TETRA system from DAMM Cellular
Networks for this customer.
Amirov explains: “We favour TETRA
for this application as it gives us the
combination of data with voice facilities
such as group calls and security. We
are supporting telemetry and machine
interfaces; for example, the control of
pumps and other vital equipment.” The
TETRA network also provides two-way
group communications.
He adds: “Frequencies in the
450MHz band are available in Russia
for mission-critical LTE, but for our
petrochemical customers the technology
is still not sufficiently robust in terms
of coverage and availability. However,
where coverage is good it can be useful
for large data transfer. We are equipping
some users with TETRA/LTE hybrid
devices such as the Airbus Tactilon
Dabat. In our view a dedicated private
So, what are the comms options for
these stages of the supply chain?
End-to-end support
TISSCOM in Russia supports all
aspects of the oil and gas supply chain
with communications systems matched
to the specific needs of the users.
Rushan Amirov, owner and CEO, says:
“Taking exploration as an example,
seismic data from the teams in remote
locations is sent back for analysis at a
central location over WiMAX.
“A network of base stations links to
the team’s trucks over distances of 20km
and quickly sends large packets of data.
In this case, satellite communication
is another possible link, but the set-up
requires specific skills and time. The
WiMAX solution has been found to
be easy to use and integrate.” Voice
communications with the teams
happens via a TETRA radio system.
PJSC TATNEFT is one of the major
oil producers, which operates across
January 2020 @CritCommsToday 17