Norway-based Tampnet, a notable player in offshore private 5G, has a major new multi-site gig with oil firm Aker BP, extending to seven installations in total, and a total core-network swap-out with US vendor Mavenir, across up to 350 offshore sites.
In sum – what to know:
North Sea private 5G – offshore network specialist Tampnet has a major new supply deal with oil firm Aker BP to deploy private 5G at seven oil rigs in the North Sea.
Total Mavenir migration – the firm’s entire offshore 4G/5G base, at around 350 sites, will be swapped to Mavenir’s core network, to the cost of other EU/US suppliers.
Mexican fibre expansion – deal with PEMEX-backed oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico will see Tampnet extend its subsea fibre network; new North Sea tie-up will do the same.
Norway-based Tampnet, a notable player in the supply of private 4G and 5G networks for offshore industry, has deployed the world’s first fully autonomous private 5G and edge compute solution on an offshore production platform – it says. The project is for Norwegian oil exploration firm Aker BP, at the Edvard Grieg oil field on the Norwegian continental shelf, which stretches across parts of the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Barents Sea. Its success has effectively green-lit further offshore 5G deployments for Aker BP at six other oil platforms, at least.
Network vendors for the Aker BP contract have not been confirmed, but Tampnet works with Ericsson and Mavenir. It has just signed a new vendor supply-deal with the latter – which makes Mavenir its preferred core network supplier for private 4G and 5G installations, and will see it migrate its entire installed base of offshore deployments to the US outfit. A press note said Mavenir’s converged packet core solution has been selected for “immediate deployment across its global 4G/5G network”.
Tampnet, headquartered in Stavanger, has deployed private 4G / 5G for oil and energy customers at 350-odd other rigs and vessels, in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and off the coasts of Trinidad & Tobago and Canada. It holds spectrum for private offshore cellular deployments at 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz, and owns North Sea fibre cable as well. In March, it signed a deal to supply fibre connectivity and services for the offshore Trion Project in the Gulf of Mexico.
The Trion Project is a joint venture for oil production between Woodside Petróleo Operaciones de México and PEMEX Exploración y Producción, in operator and non-operator roles. It is Tampnet’s first “entry into Mexican waters”, it noted, and sees it extend around 1500 kilometres of subsea fibre in the deepwater region of the Gulf of Mexico with a further 200 kilometres of subsea cable.
The new deal with Aker BP covers private 5G deployments on six further platforms (Yggdrasil, Fenris, Valhall, Alvheim, Ivar Aasen, and Skarv), across the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. The initial Edvard Grieg rollout follows a successful trial in May, which involved Italian defence firm Leonardo. Claims about its pre-eminence, as “the world’s first”, rather raises questions about Tampnet’s other installations – if some, at least, are not all-edge private 5G setups. (Tampnet is an old hand at offshore 5G networking and computing, after all.)
A press note does not make clear whether it is the first to be “fully autonomous”, or just to be located on the Norwegian continental shelf. But a social media post in May, following the tests, appeared to shed some light. “First on the Norwegian continental shelf: mission-critical comms over private 5G,” it said. “At Edvard Grieg, the first Aker BP platform with 5G coverage across 100 percent of the asset and edge compute, provided by Tampnet. A proof of concept for mission critical push-to-talk (PTT; with Leonardo’s MCX) has successfully been conducted this week.”
The tests considered the system’s “potential to increase safety, reduce uncertainty, and improve coordination in high-risk operations”. But really, the significance of the new announcement, from this week, is with the scaling of the private 5G rollout, from one site to seven, following the initial tests at the Edvard Grieg platform. Thomas Øvretveit, senior vice president of operations at Aker BP, said: “Full wireless coverage opens up new possibilities of digital, intelligent and autonomous operations, and marks an important step in Aker BP’s digital transformation.”
Tampnet’s solution at the platform includes full offshore indoor/outdoor coverage at the site and full offshore autonomy over all the data – for compliance, security, and performance. In terms of applications, the network is providing “real-time” support for mission-critical PTT, IoT sensor data and predictive maintenance applications, remote access to AI tools and expert systems, plus autonomous drones, robotics, digital twins, and augmented reality. The setup gets around issues with “steel-rich environments, harsh weather, and latency-sensitive operations”
Per Atle Sørensen, managing director for North Sea operations at Tampnet, commented: “Tampnet’s 5G edge infrastructure is more than a connectivity project. It’s an enabler for oil and gas companies to scale advanced use cases such as remote operations, AI-based optimisation and dynamic reservoir monitoring.”
The company has been busy since RCR Wireless last reported in February that it is working with US industrial edge outfit Armada to bring AI applications to offshore energy and power companies. Its new deal with Mavenir, signed back in May, details a “wholesale migration to Mavenir from existing core technology providers in Europe and in the Americas. It explained: “This new strategic partnership unlocks a transformative opportunity for Tampnet to deliver… cloud-native 5G to its customers.” These include the full scope of 3GPP-defined 5G capabilities – enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency comms (URLLC), and massive machine-type comms (mMTC) – and its total generational proposition, from 4G to 5G NSA, and 5G SA to 6G (“for future capabilities”).
Tampnet said: “This positions us as a leader in the global telecoms landscape, ready to meet the evolving demands of consumers, enterprises, and industries.” Mavenir said: “Tampnet is [now] positioned to fully realise the benefits of an agile, extensible network and accelerate the roll-out of leading-edge services to support IoT and emerging next-generation applications.”
In Mexico, where it has just been appointed to the Trio Project, Tampnet’s subsea infrastructure connects around 20 deepwater offshore assets on redundant fibre to shore, and also includes a new landing station. Tampnet has a roaming deal with US telecom major AT&T so 5G coverage will also be available to offshore worker’s private devices. New 5G coverage for the project will also expand the US public safety network, FirstNet, in the region. The fibre connectivity between the offshore Trio platform and onshore Woodside facility in Mexico will support remote operations, safety, and training capabilities – all managed on shore.
Elie Hanna, chief executive at Tampnet, said: “Offshore energy companies can now fully embrace digitalisation and automation technologies, benefitting from real-time data analytics and AI-driven insights, irrespective of the offshore location. In terms of data speeds, reliability and scalability, no other technologies can compete with fibre optics, which is why offshore field developments focused on safety, minimal carbon emissions and efficiency continue to prefer and invest in fibre to shore. This project ties in with our ambitions for geographic expansion.”
As well, Tampnet is now integrating the “land-based maritime broadband network” from Swedish firm Nowhere Networks into its proprietary fibre infrastructure for offshore rigs and platforms. A statement explained: “By combining Tampnet’s extensive offshore footprint and fibre-based backbone with Nowhere Network’s dynamic, cost-effective radio technology, [this] collaboration sets a new benchmark for hybrid connectivity. [We] are enabling faster deployments, enhanced service reliability, and a new level of digital infrastructure performance.”
