Tampnet has been awarded a long-term contract to operate the shared telecommunications infrastructure for all the offshore oil and gas companies operating on the Dutch continental shelf.
The scope of the six-year contract (with two options for an additional four years) is to operate, upgrade, develop and maintain the telecoms infrastructure across the 110 sites.
Tampnet will tie the existing telecoms network into its subsea fibre-based infrastructure in the North Sea, adding flexibility and redundancy to Telecoms Offshore User Group Holland (TOUGH) members.
The LTE "cloud" in the Dutch sector will merge into the overall North Sea coverage, and provide a standardised offshore LTE service between Norway, the Netherlands and the UK.
The existing network, which includes offshore microwave links, fibre optic cables, switching and routing equipment, transmission equipment and various onshore communications links, provides voice, data, process control and other critical communication services between the offshore installations and onshore locations.
Tampnet will upgrade and improve the existing network to include 4G LTE and to support narrowband internet of things (NB-IoT) technology to support the industrial digitalisation efforts to work more smartly, more efficiently and safely, it said.
TOUGH is a group of nine operators of offshore oil and gas assets on the Dutch continental shelf. It includes TAQA Energy, Centrica Production Nederland, Engie E&P Nederland, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij, Dana Petroleum Netherlands, Total E&P Nederland, Petrogas E&P Netherlands, Wintershall Noordzee and Oranje-Nassau Energie.
