Drilling Oil Data: The Black Gold of Energy Production

The reality is that our domestic production is declining. We now produce nearly 40% less oil than we did in 1970. Unless policies are changed, production will continue to decline. The projection is just over five million barrels per day by 2020, down from a high of 9.4 million barrels per day 30 years ago. Failure to meet this challenge may harm our [USA’s] prosperity, damage our national security, and may affect the way we live our daily lives."

(IPAMS Wildcatter Weely, Issue 13, 2001, 4/6/2001, Quoting Interior Secretary Gale Norton)

Oil production; the problems are evident and the solutions are few, but the bottom line remains clear; the ever increasing demand for this global commodity is on the rise while the deposits themselves are quickly depleting. The days of free-drilling and finding a rich deposit of oil to sustain a large demographic of a population are long gone. And yet the situation necessitates a better way to regain control of the growing global energy need by finding alternative energy solutions while still being able to keep oil production high.

How can this be done? What is the solution to the oil crisis?

The answer is simple, more oil. Drilling and discovery technology has progressed significantly to enhance the ability to find and retrieve the oil. This in turn has produced new vital areas essential to oil field success such as:

• Workflow of in-field work processes. This greatly necessitates a more streamlined way to assess, communicate, implement, and resolve any and all situations that may be present in the field while performing them on-the-fly.
• Real-time data communications between drilling companies and oil clients. This single communications component enables energy companies and drilling engineers to make changes instantly to items such as drilling location, live feedback to investors and engineers alike in order to maximize production, and competitive analysis to offset any doubts about the viability of the current project.
• Data services for entertainment to employees at well sights to enable longer stints at remote locations.

Recent advances in the world of voice communications have also made it possible to provide a total comprehensive telephony solution which provides a real-time voice facet to overall operations. Keeping these options and many others in mind, energy companies have been beset with the responsibility of finding a communications solution.

Helmerich and Payne, a Tulsa, Oklahoma based energy resource operator and data service company, came to this very conclusion. In 2004, Helmerich and Payne’s network consisted of fixed satellite VSAT terminals that had to be pointed by hand at each respective well site in order for critical information to reach back into the customers hands. This was a complicated, moneyhungry process that drained resources and wasted valuable uptime. Helmerich and Payne needed an automatic, mobile solution compatible with their satellite network while reducing overall maintenance costs of upkeep on typical procedures such as initial setup, in-field operations, and unscheduled system downtime. This system also needed the ability to provide both voice and data solutions while being a drop-in, IP based setup over a closed, global area network.

MotoSAT, a manufacturer and designer of mobile satellite systems, rose to the challenge of developing a tailored solution to this challenge. MotoSAT, in 2004, was a growing company with a niche mobile data product called the DataStorm. This system was a satellite driven, IP based dish capable of providing the bandwidth necessary to push both data and voice packets through a satellite link. The DataStorm was also a push-button, auto-finder, with motors and gears to drive the dish automatically to the requested satellite. This, in conjunction with specific criteria specifications set forth by Helmerich and Payne, became a premier solution and example to the energy market of how communications can change the face of tapping new energy sources.

Helmerich and Payne now has more than 40 operational DataStorm automatic systems deployed on their network. These systems, coupled with Helmerich and Payne’s customer base, have propelled their business to the forefront of energy data solutions in remote locations.

Today MotoSAT continues to build relationships and gain solid ground in communication solutions to energy companies. MotoSAT currently has major contracts with Chimo/VARCO, Nabors/Epoch, and has just renewed ties with Helmerich and Payne in the energy market. Accordingly, MotoSAT has developed better technology through the partnerships of these
companies and has released new versions of the DataStorm mobile data system, the XF series line, engineered and geared toward energy services and major commercial applications in extreme environments.

As oil demand continues to increase, MotoSAT is rising to the occasion with technology to meet the needs of energy companies everywhere in order to provide fast, secure, and comprehensive data services worldwide while maintaining the integrity of their product through simplicity, function, and flexibility.

Besides energy companies, MotoSAT also assists to restore data communication to energy areas hit by disaster. In Fall 2005 MotoSAT rose to the occasion when disaster hit in the form of Hurricane Katrina at the Louisiana coast line decimating the communications lines in that region. In September of that same year, MotoSAT deployed over 100 DataStorm auto-deploy systems to assist in establishing communications lines to that area. MotoSAT also assisted in rebuilding data communications to downed oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico by providing tech support and services to those companies that were affected by the hurricane.

MotoSAT now looks toward the future of its business in the global market. As the need for always being connected increases, MotoSAT will continue to release state-of-the-art, well engineered products. No matter where you are, what your data service need, or level of remote bandwidth access, MotoSAT technology will move your business to the next level.