Brazilian oilfield supply fleet taps into faster satellite communications with Fleetbroadband 250
Fleetbroadband 250 satellite terminals are providing essential high speed connectivity for a fleet of supply ships serving recently-discovered oilfields off the coast of Brazil. Oil supply ship operator Astromaritima is equipping its fleet with Fleetbroadband internet satellite services.
Reliable Satellite Communications Needed
Potentially massive oil reserves in a geological region known as the ‘pre-salt’ layer were discovered 170 miles off shore in the Atlantic in 2007. Brazilian energy company Petrobras, Astromaritima’s largest customer, plans to produce 5.7 million barrels of oil and gas a day by 2020.
Claudio Salem, IT manager for Astromaritima, said the oil companies working in the pre-salt region needed reliable and efficient satellite communications equipment to send data from vessels to base, to send email, and to make calls.
Already three of Astromaritima’s vessels have been supplied with the terminals and the long-term plan will be to install Fleetbroadband 250 (FB250) on all 18 vessels by the end of the year, to support estimated data traffic volumes of 20 megabytes per month.
Fleetbroadband for Maritime Communications
Fleetbroadband is a maritime satellite communications service providing portable satellite internet and voice simultaneously. The Fleetbroadband 250 offers data speeds of up to 284 kbps and streaming IP up to 128 kbps. With simultaneous access to satellite data, internet and voice services the supply ships will have reliable access to sea chart and online weather data, route planning and crew calling all at the same time, contributing to operational efficiency.
“We can really put into practice every control wanted on our vessels,” Astromaritima’s Salem said.