Tampnet to Connect Dutch Continental Shelf O&G Operators

Tampnet has been awarded a long-term contract to operate the shared telecommunications infrastructure of the oil & gas companies operating on the Dutch Continental Shelf.

The scope of the contract is to operate, upgrade, develop and maintain the telecom infrastructure, making the Dutch oil & gas industry leading in technology development and ongoing digitalization processes. The contract is awarded for an initial period of 6 years, followed by possible options of 4 years each.

Tampnet will tie the existing telecom network into its existing subsea fibre based infrastructure in the North Sea, adding flexibility and redundancy to the TOUGH members. The LTE “cloud” on the Dutch sector will merge into the overall North Sea coverage, and provide a seamless and standardised offshore LTE services between Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.

The shared offshore telecommunications infrastructure is crucial to the TOUGH members operations for both operations and safety. The existing infrastructure covers 110 offshore sites, physically implemented over a network that includes offshore microwave links, fibre optic cables, switching and routing equipment, transmission equipment as well as various onshore communications links. The network is used to provide voice, data, process control and other critical communication services between the offshore installations and onshore locations.

Tampnet will throughout the life of the contract upgrade and improve the existing network to also include 4G LTE as one of the main technologies used. The network will also be built to support Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technologies to support the industrial digitalization efforts to work smarter, more efficient and safer.

Tampnet CEO, Per Helge Svensson, said: “We are very humble and grateful for yet again being awarded and acknowledged for our expertise in delivering high-capacity and low latency communications offshore. We are proud to be selected for this demanding but exciting task by no less than nine oil companies in total, and we look forward to working closely with each one of them. The award of this contract is a major addition to our ever-growing offshore footprint in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico and other regions, and it expands the reach of our value proposition.”