Digitization Project for Campos Basin
Authors: Mariano John J. , Oswald Luiz Gonzaga 
Published: October 2008

The economics of offshore and deep water production has been steadily improving through the continual introduction of improved technology. Up to now, a majority of such improvements have been derived from the implementation of mechanical systems both above the surface and subsea. Today, with the high reliance on sophisticated systems, telecommunications is becoming a critical factor to efficient offshore productivity. PETROBRAS has recognized this importance and has embarked on the Digitization Project for the Campos Basin. This project will result in a high capacity, highly reliable offshore, undersea fiber optic network utilizing SDH transmission equipment at the terminal points. The network, the first of its kind in the world, is achieved by interconnecting its offshore oil rigs with its Macae operations center, using undersea fiber optic cables as its backbone. This paper provides a review of the technical alternatives and economic factors that were considered in developing the solution; a summary of the resulting undersea network; and a summary of the benefits that will be realized with the fully operational network.

PETROBRAS Campos Basin

PETROBRAS is one of the world's leading companies in offshore petroleum production, with a history of successive records in the Campos Basin fields1. The Campos Basin lies on the Brazilian continental shelf north of Rio de Janeiro state. Its area covers approximately 100,000 sq. km and has a maximum depth of 3,500 meters. With the mixture of 13 fixed and 16 semi-submersible platforms, Campos production accounts for 70% of the energy needs of Brazil.

PETROBRAS has adopted the following goals in order to achieve the higher production rate and cost reduction needs2:Improving marine surveys with the objective of increasing success rate of explorationMinimizing elapse time between discovery and ProductionIncreasing oil fields recover ratesLowering operational costs and investment costsIncorporating automatic processing in risk scenarios.

In many ways, these goals will be achieved by the deployment of a high quality, highly reliable telecommunication network. Telecommunications throughout the company must be at comparable levels to ensure adequate access to data and applications. Today, the terrestrial links are adequate however, the offshore links are in need of upgrade.

Enhanced Offshore Telecommunications

The present telecommunications system in the Campos Basin was developed in the early 80's to meet voice transfer demands. This system employs low speed analog data transmission with rates only up to 9,600 bps. This capacity had been adequate to meet the first generation offshore operational telecommunication needs but presently falls short of meeting the quality and reliability demands necessary for today's systems. Since PETROBRAS is a vertically integrated company, a sound telecommunications infrastructure is therefore critical. In total, the functions it integrates include operating, exploration, production, refining, transportation, marketing, and import/export of oil and oil by-products. For a majority of the land base operations, telecommunications has been steadily improved with the various upgrades in the system provided by Embratel. For the offshore situation, this network is entirely a PETROBRAS operation. Therefore for the onshore and offshore operations to be fully compatible, comparable high quality offshore telecommunications must exist.