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How complex and costly are your company's communication costs? If your company is part of the oil and gas industry, you likely have a complex of legacy systems mixed in with newer equipment. You are paying a premium to keep older technology running, but need that money to invest in newer technologies.

Maybe it's time to reduce your communication costs by investing in the future.

The Growth Of Communications In Oil And Gas

Automation and remote monitoring are rapidly replacing the large oil and gas workforce of the past. Instead of sending out a crew to check a pipeline or well site daily, companies are setting up monitoring and managing devices in the field. All of these devices communicate to central monitoring and management sites.

This growth in the number of communication points is astounding at over 20 percent each year. And the push to reduce employee rolls during the current downturn is driving this growth even harder.

The oil and gas industry is leading the growth of machine-to-machine communication between applications and devices and the Internet. It allows companies to monitor and manage operations in remote locations, with a minimum number of workers.

The Problem Of Legacy Systems

The past couple of decades have seen the movement of the oil and gas industry away from older business practices to newer ones. Adoption of SCADA systems was one of the first waves of technology to hit the industry. It provided basic monitoring at remote sites. The problem with older SCADA systems, however, is poor polling times and narrow bandwidth.

As newer technology came along, many companies added the technology alongside their legacy SCADA systems. If the bandwidth was not enough, the company just set up a second communication line. Over time, it was not uncommon for a single site to have multiple communication points, or a single field to have multiple communication systems. This can make managing the SCADA system difficult

The Solution

High speed ethernet RF networks can easily make communications at an oil and gas site much simpler to manage. It is possible to replace modems and satellite links with a single communication point, as well, as integrate your legacy RF within the high speed RF to make a single point of entry for your SCADA servers.

By reducing complexity, you will lower the maintenance and repair costs. By replacing multiple communication points, you will lower operating costs for each site. By simplifying your operations, you can lower your manpower costs.

If you are ready to reduce your costs, call on the automation professionals at Champion Automation.