Provider of floating production services to the oil and gas industry, BW Offshore, says it has signed a 5-year, $12 million contract with Orange Business Services for an end-to-end satellite communication solution for its fleet of oil and gas production vessels.

Orange Business Services is providing Maritime VSAT – a fully managed end-to-end satellite-based communication solution – which fully integrates BW Offshore’s 14 vessels and two land-based locations into the Orange MPLS network. This solution offers BW Offshore personnel access to the exact same business applications, communication and entertainment services at sea as on land, no matter where the vessel is located.

In addition, BW Offshore has agreed to invest in Session Internet Protocol (SIP) trunking - the use of voice over IP to facilitate the connection of a private branch exchange (PBX) to the Internet - to enable the implementation of unified communications for its 2,000 employees regardless of their location.

From an administration point of view, the solution is in many ways pioneering. For years, BW Offshore had multiple VSAT providers with different contracts, quality of service and SLAs. The communication solution from Orange Business Services connects the floating and land-based personnel seamlessly in an end-to-end network with the same high performance, quality of service and security.

“By choosing the satellite-based solution from Orange Business Services, we avoid many of the challenges we sometimes faced with a multiple provider strategy, like high latency on VSAT links and poor application performance on vessels at sea,” said Fritz Ekløff, Senior Vice President of Corporate IT at BW Offshore. “We wanted a single provider with end-to-end responsibility that could deliver service with predictable speed, quality and security. The solution is cost efficient and at the same time we get access to a wider portfolio of services than we had before.”

“With the Orange maritime service, BW Offshore embodies the concept of ‘office at sea,’” said Helmut Reisinger, senior vice president, Orange Business Services Europe, Russia & CIS. “As opposed to other VSAT providers, our satellite and land-based services are fully integrated. As a result, BW Offshore gets access to a secure, high-performing network from all sites, whether at sea or on land.

"By choosing an end-to-end solution, the company avoids using the public Internet which adds complexity and lowers overall control, quality and security. Orange Business Services supports BW Offshore with a unique blend of maritime and oil and gas industry expertise. In addition, Orange Business Services is the only global provider with its own local staff to install and support complex satellite networks all over the world, which is critical for a global company like BW Offshore.”