Digitalization in the New Era of Oil and Gas

The oil and gas industry has entered a new era with the transformation of operations through digital communication technologies that automate processes, provide remote monitoring, and enable real-time asset management. These technologies offer the potential to accelerate productivity and reservoir recovery, improve efficiency, and provide superior protection for physical sites, IT systems, and workers.

Leveraging these technologies requires advanced infrastructure. Nokia's oil and gas technologies offer the capabilities needed to elevate the industry to the 4.0 era and support onshore and offshore operations, as well as downstream operations that include mobile communications with next-generation operating systems and real-time applications running on a single private LTE and IP/MPLS network.

What Can a Private LTE and IP/MPLS Network Provide?

LTE technology enables oil and gas operators to create a broadband network based on industrial standards that extends communications coverage for exploration, transportation, and production. It delivers broadband speeds that enable real-time communications for critical supervision, control, and automation.

Private LTE offers high spectral efficiency and uses advanced digital communication techniques such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), turbo coding, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). It operates across numerous frequency bands and adapts to different channel sizes, as well as varying spectrum availability conditions.

Furthermore, with greater RF transmission power, better sensitivity, and higher EIRP than other broadband wireless technologies (such as Wi-Fi), an LTE network can cover the same area with fewer base stations, increasing network efficiency.

In turn, IP/MPLS networks enable operators to create versatile networks for individual applications with privacy, security, and reliability. It consolidates all applications into a single converged network that provides the high Quality of Service (QoS) required for critical applications such as SCADA, land mobile radio, and video surveillance.

IP/MPLS technology is the ideal complement to LTE, as its VPN capabilities can be extended through an LTE broadband wireless network while maintaining its security and management quality. This aligned and consistent service across the entire network simplifies operations and optimizes costs.

Improving Remote Operations

For oil and gas companies, critical applications are even more important, as operations can extend to remote and difficult-to-access locations. To maintain productivity and control operating costs, the ability to supervise and manage remote equipment, alarms, events, and field personnel is required.

The private LTE and IP/MPLS communication solution for oil and gas simplifies remote operations by enabling:

Monitoring and troubleshooting hard-to-reach wells, pipelines, and other collection points using high-definition video.
Interpreting and correlating data streams from numerous sources, digitizing and automating business-critical processes.
Collecting records and responding effectively to alarms and events generated at different locations.
Enabling geolocation of people, vehicles, and assets, as well as wireless communications on offshore platforms and with vessels.
Monitoring environmental conditions with IoT sensors.
Low-latency communications for autonomous vehicles and robots.

In summary, digitalization and automation are essential for improving the efficiency and sustainability of oil and gas companies. Nokia's communication solutions provide reliable wireless infrastructure to enhance productivity and safety. They can keep everything connected, from vessels to workers, sensors, and operations centers.