M/D Totco

Slick as Oil: M/D Totco Uses HughesNet Managed Services Solution to Meet Customer Needs

A few years ago, M/D Totco, the 80-year-old instrumentation division of National Oilwell Varco, struggled to provide a reliable, secure data network for its customers, and its business suffered as a result. “The previous satellite-based network that we were employing suffered from many reliability problems,” says Ray Daily, Product Line Manager at M/D Totco, “and our customers were frustrated at their inability to consistently monitor data from their rigs.”

The importance of network reliability cannot be overstated in the oil industry. Included in the highly complex and technical process of oil well drilling is the continuous collection and analysis of data obtained by monitoring numerous drilling parameters on the rig. Sophisticated instrumentation systems collect and display measurements such as weight on drill bit, pump pressures, rate of penetration, and various drilling fluid circulation system variables. World-class companies depend on oil service companies like M/D Totco to provide these data to ensure the well bore is being drilled at specifi ed rates and conditions in order to stay cost efficient and provide a top quality well bore in the extremely competitive and volatile oil well drilling industry. The readouts, therefore, must be accurate and fast, and extremely secure in how the information is relayed from the rig to the control station. The ability for a secure, accurate, and fast measurement system is severely hampered if the network it runs on is not reliable.

Observing the issues at hand, Real Time Communications, M/D Totco’s network management company, acted quickly and recommended that M/D Totco switch to Hughes Network Systems, a leading broadband solutions and services company. Hughes could provide their HughesNet Optimized Virtual Private Network (VPN) service which would serve as the backbone for the network M/D Totco provides to its customers.

Pumping up the network

The result was a relationship between M/D Totco and Hughes that is entering its third year; and M/D Totco’s customers have benefi ted as a result. “Our customers love the reliability, security, and speed that the network provides,” says Daily. Now, M/D Totco effortlessly monitors its network and gives its customers real-time data at a given rig site, which is uploaded to a remote location offsite. The information can then be viewed, printed, and distributed in order to examine and adjust key processes. “The solution requires very little oversight on our part,” says Daily.

The network must also be able to send data from geographically remote and diverse on-shore and off-shore drill sites to locations located across the world. Such a process demands not only reliability, but speed and fl exibility as well. “We may have a drill site in the middle of the ocean, but that customer is still going to want to see his/her data as fast as the other guy with the drill site in Texas,” says Daily. “The HughesNet Optimized VPN solution is quick and allows us to move data at each location with minimal network delay, no matter where in the world the two ends are located.” In total, the Hughes solution reliably services 550 active sites under the M/D Totco banner. These sites are located all over the world, many in locations where terrestrial broadband would be either impossible or extremely cost prohibitive.

Beyond security and speed, M/D Totco’s customers are also looking for customization, and HughesNet Optimized VPN “gives us all three,” says Daily. A key advantage with the Hughes solution is that it gives us superior speed and security for the solutions our competitors provide. But the solution also gives us the ability to customize a customer’s VPN with specific components, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP),” Daily explains. “And the driving factor in all of this is the reliability and flexibility that the Hughes solution provides us.”

Rising demand

Since the initial deployment, the network has expanded twice to meet customer needs. “What we are seeing is a growing demand. Our customers have been extremely happy with the network we provide them to move data back and forth and there is no doubt the underlying reason is the HughesNet Optimized VPN service.”

“We look forward to growing in the future and it is good to know that with HughesNet Optimized VPN, our expansion can be done while our network remains dependable.”