TELECOMMUNICATIONS FOR NORTH SEA GAS AND OIL EXPLORATION ACTIVITIES

The paper reviews the telecommunications requirements of the North Sea Gas and Oil Exploration industry outlining both the operational requirements and the problems set by the environment in the North Sea area. The services provided to meet these requirements include Radio Telephone, Telex, Data and Facsimile transmission and conventional W.T. on various marine bands. These services provide communication not only between rig and shore but also between rig and supply and support ships. The paper discusses in some detail particular types of equipment and systems used including MF and HF SSB and ISB marine equipment, point-to-point VHF and UHF systems, and tropospheric scatter systems. Operation details and limitations of the various systems are discussed together with practical problems of operation such as maintenance and reliability. Finally, the paper looks at likely future developments and in particular satellite communications concluding that there is unlikely to be any one single telecommunications system which will meet all the oil rig communications requirements in the foreseeable future.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at the April 25-27, 1973 Seattle RTCM Assembly Meeting. Volume 1--Papers A thru E, Maritime Satellite Telecommunications Activity; Volume 2--Papers F thru L, Maritime Antennas, Personnel, and ITU Conference Activity; Volume 3--Papers M thru R, Systems Approaches to Maritime Telecommunications; Volume 4--Papers S thru Y, Navigation and Position Fixing in Maritime Telecommunications. Sold only as a complete four volume set--$10.00 per set.
• Corporate Authors:

  Radio Technical Commission for Marine Services

  /Federal Communications Commission
  Washington, DC  United States  20554
• Authors:
  • Hopkins, D L
  • WILLIAMS, W P
• Publication Date: 1973-4

Media Info

• Pagination: 7 p.
• Serial:
  • Volume: 3

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Communication systems; Radio; Satellite communication; Telecommunications
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00050269
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Radio Technical Commission for Marine Services
• Report/Paper Numbers: Paper 103-73/DO-72
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 14 1973 12:00AM