BP America has selected Tyco Telecommunications to lay a 1400km undersea fiber optic cable in the Gulf of Mexico. The high bandwidth system links production facilities to BP’s ‘Advanced Collaborative Environment (ACE)’ centers in Houston. Initially, the Marlin, Horn Mountain, Na Kika, Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog and Holstein platforms will be online with an upgrade potential of up to 64 platforms.
Hurricanes
The 2005 hurricane season proved ‘challenging’ for traditional communications. With ‘long haul’ undersea telecommunications technologies, each platform is connected to a branch of the deep water trunk. Optical multiplexing gives each platform direct optical connectivity to two landing stations, ensuring continued operations, independent of any other platform during hurricane events.
Lang
Kenny Lang, BP VP Gulf of Mexico said, ‘This $80 million investment will allow early evacuation of our offshore staff whilst keeping critical energy supplies flowing. During routine operations, the fiber optic network will allow both of BP’s new technology centers to remotely apply high level technical expertise to our offshore producing facilities.’
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