Saturday, Aug 17, 2013
Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company (Adma-Opco), which operates offshore fields in Abu Dhabi has said it’s building a fibre optic wide area network (WAN) project in conjunction with Zakum Development Company (Zadco), aimed at improving communications between the company’s offshore and onshore sites.
“The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2015. It’s designed to deploy a new fibre optic WAN to all the major offshore facilities in conjunction with Etisalat,” Adma-Opco said in a newsletter, without providing any cost estimates.
It added: “The main objective of the project is to meet the current and future needs of Adma-Opco and Zadco new field development projects in Sarb, Nasr and Umm Lulu oil fields, and improve all communication means to existing facilities on Das, Umm Shaif and Zakum. The system will touch Zadco’s Central Island and facilities on Umm Al Dalkh, Satah and Arzanah.”
Commenting on the development, K. Al Awadi, a local energy expert at Dubai-based Hawk Energy told Gulf News: “This is part of Adnoc group company’s technological upgrade to suit the new hardware and software market availability for the next 10 years. It’s a cost-effective option for Adnoc for the short term as well as the long-term.”
The new submarine fibre optic infrastructure will improve real time transmission (RTT) systems, represented by voice, video and data, to ensure business continuity, full redundancy, high reliability and availabilities for such services as well as enabling new capability of added services like high definition (HD) surveillance video cameras for close circuit television (CCTV) system, said Adma-Opco.
The newsletter said the linkage from Umm Shaif to Das will be included as part of the planned power cable project between Das and Umm Shaif, and Nasr connectivity will be included in the Nasr power cables.
Adma-Opco, a key oil-producing unit of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), is pursuing 1 million barrels per day (bpd) production target and the majority of this will be completed by 2017, raising it from the current 600,000 bpd.
Zadco’s mandate was to develop the Upper Zakum field on behalf of Adnoc and for the benefit of the shareholders in the joint venture, Adnoc, ExxonMobil, and Japan Oil Development Company Ltd (Jodco).
Besides Upper Zakum, the company operates Umm Al Dalkh, and Satah fields. Crude oil from Upper Zakum, Umm Al Dalkh and Satah fields is pumped via main oil lines to Zirku Island for further processing, storage and export. Zirku Island is located 140 kilometres north west of Abu Dhabi. With its advanced oil and gas installations, Zirku is considered the main industrial base for the processing, storage and export of oil from Upper Zakum, Umm Al Dalkh and Satah fields.
By Himendra Mohan Kumar Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
