Sam Fletcher
OGJ Online
HOUSTON, May 31 -- Petroleum Communications Inc. (PetroCom), an offshore cellular telephone and satellite communications firm in Harahan, La., is joining with founders of the Western Gulf Microwave Consortium (WGMC) to upgrade communications for offshore platforms and drilling rigs in the western Gulf of Mexico.
"We're forming a new entity this week. We want to keep it as simple as possible," PetroCom President and CEO John Payne told OGJ Online on Thursday.
However, he said, "It's not clear yet" whether the new entity will retain the name of the existing Texas cooperative or perhaps change the name and incorporate in Delaware.
Once the new entity is formed, it will ask the Federal Communications Commission for a temporary permit to transmit, which would allow workers to start changing out Houston-based WGMC's microwave telecommunications equipment in the western gulf, said Payne.
PetroCom's role will be to upgrade what Payne describes as the "1960s technology" of the existing system. "The world is going digital," he said, "but this system is still using analog technology."
A digital signal communicates in binary numbers, compared to the analog signals of human speech. A digital signal processor is a powerful microprocessor that can quickly process large amounts of sophisticated data. Combined with cellular bandwidth that provides more "space" through which to transmit, it produces a digital communications system that can move greater volumes of multiple data many times faster than the conventional analog system.
"Customers are requiring more and more bandwidth to transfer more data among onshore and offshore locations. What we're doing would allow them to move more data through the system," said Gordon D. Rice, president of SOLA Communications Inc., Houston.
SOLA is one of the three founding members of the WGMC, along with Unocal Corp. and Devon Energy Corp.
Rice said PetroCom has become a fourth equal partner in the consortium, which was established during the 1960s. It was set up as a cooperative, he said, "so that other entities can come in and use its services. Any proceeds left over at the end of the year are paid back to members." He said 92 companies currently use the offshore communications system.
The proposed upgrade would provide "a mid-range service" covering most of the Outer Continental Shelf in the western gulf "from Padre Island to Sabine Pass," said Payne.
Its potential market includes every offshore platform and rig in those waters. "The customer base is there," said Rice.
But the current equipment in that system is badly outdated, said Payne. "The new kids that they're hiring out of college now are used to the modern, high-speed data systems that are prevalent at land sites. They're having a hard time coping with the Third World 1960s system in the western gulf," he said.
Once it gets the FCC permit, the consortium will begin updating and replacing equipment at various offshore central stations, platforms equipped with microwave transmitters. That changeover would provide "point-to-multiple-point" communications versus the current point-to-point system, Payne said.
It would also permit rigs to change locations without having to change the central stations through which their communications would be transmitted, said consortium officials.
"Now if a rig moves away from the unit it has been using, we have to make a mechanical changeover on the equipment to connect from a new location. It's labor intensive," said Rice. "And sometimes rigs do not have phone service while in transit."
The new partnership with PetroCom and the pending request for a temporary permit are "in response to delays by the FCC regarding developmental microwave technology licenses and allocations of new spectrum," said WGMC officials.
Federal licenses for the bandwidths through which voice and data will be transmitted will be offered through the FCC for competitive bidding, industry officials said.
FCC officials in Washington didn't respond to OGJ Online's requests for comment.
The agency's web page states, "The FCC is vigilantly monitoring the rollout of broadband access and encouraging competition in the market."
But documents accessible through that site indicate that the agency's attention is focused more on mainland residential users than offshore business.
PetroCom is a subsidiary of S&P Cellular Holding Inc. It was founded in 1983 to construct, develop, and operate the first cellular/satellite communications network.
Contact Sam Fletcher at [email protected]