Page 13: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Nov/Dec 2020)

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DIGITALIZATION CONNECTIVITY

Remote operations in the ofshore market provide multiple benefts. Tese include risk mitigation because more personnel are removed from the ofshore environment, certainty of program delivery thanks to expedited data delivery, client cost reductions and more fexible and scalable operations and fnally sustainability because operational carbon footprint can be dramatically reduced.

– Tore Morten Olsen,

President, Maritime, Marlink pushed forward by months or even decades. In February 2020, pre-Covid-19, his company faced a long cycle of justi?cation, a major operator reported that remote operations had increased approval and funding before he got to a sale. Now he’s dealing from less than 10% to approaching 30% six months later. with engaged executives that know they need to adapt and

Applications such as video and low latency two-way data who see remote as a conduit to do this.

transfer share the same drivers which are catalyzing the adop- This serves as a catalyst allowing for the remapping work- tion of more remote operations. In fact, the kind of remote ?ows and reshaping management structures enabling a trans- visual inspections we have seen done increasingly by drone or formational vison to emerge with a focus on digitalization. over video might even be possible by direct satellite inspection as more and more low earth satellites join the ?eet. A DIGITAL EVOLUTION

Such working practices have proven their value during The connectivity component of the digital oil?eld was al- months of lockdown and the technology is reliable enough to ready changing prior to the pandemic. Just a few years ago the support increasingly complex applications. focus was mainly on crew welfare and how to monetize bits

Remote operations in the offshore market provide multiple and bytes with new applications. bene?ts. These include risk mitigation because more personnel An OSV that might have been on a 256kbps plan ?ve years are removed from the offshore environment, certainty of program ago would have at least quadrupled its bandwidth to 1MB using delivery thanks to expedited data delivery, client cost reductions a combination of remote monitoring and other operational data. and more ?exible and scalable operations and ?nally sustainability Upgrades to communications platform mean that the same OSV because operational carbon footprint can be dramatically reduced. might be able to use its existing antenna and onboard equipment

A designer of remote operations centers mentioned that to get much greater capability without increasing its sunk costs.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020 OFFSHORE ENGINEER 13