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FIBRE OPTIC CABLE:

THE NEXT BIG THING FOR SUBSEA CONTROL?

Antoine Lecroart, Ronan Michel (Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks)

Email: <antoine.lecroart@alcatel-lucent.com>
Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks, Route de Villejust, 91620 Nozay, France

Abstract: Is there a unique opportunity for submarine cables combining Direct Current
supply and Fibre Optic (DCFO) communications as contributors to the evolution of subsea
control in the oil & gas industry? This paper examines how existing technology could be
leveraged into this high-value application. A number of subsea functions related to the subsea
control (or subsea processing) in oil & gas offshore fields may benefit from the availability of
electrical power close to the subsea wells. The fibre optic submarine cable technology initially
developed for telecommunication applications can play a big role by bringing sizeable
amounts of power to subsea systems while simultaneously effecting dependable
communications between the templates and topside units. Based on field proven products
representing hundreds of thousands of kilometres of cable deployed, this new approach will
potentially allow replacement of hydraulic devices with electrical ones in subsea control
systems. While this will not totally eliminate the need for pipes and umbilicals, it could
reduce their number or make them simpler and safer.

1 FIBRE OPTIC CABLE: A FIELD

PROVEN PRODUCT Insulating
Sheath Optical Fibres
The submarine cable industry has gathered
experience in excess of 20 years for the Steel Wire Vault Filling Jelly

design, manufacture and installation of

optical cable and related wet plant
Composite
equipment. Conductor Steel Tube

The industry benchmark is a 17 mm

diameter cable for deep-water applications, Figure 1 : Lightweight (LW) Fibre Optic Cable
also called lightweight (LW) cable. The
This LW cable can be further protected
deep-sea cable is built around a stainless
with different types of armoured packages
steel tube, a wire vault, a copper tube
to provide increasing levels of protection,
swaged onto it and a polyethylene wall.
progressing from LW, to Light Weight
Protected (LWP), Single Armour (SA) and
Double Armour (DA) versions.

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Composite
conductor resistance ≤ 1.0 or 1.6 Ω/km
at 10°C
DC. resistance
temperature 4.10-3/°C
coefficient
Insulation between
composite conductor > 105 MΩ.km
and water
Dielectric strength
> 45kV DC for 5
between composite
min
conductor and water
Nominal capacitance
0.18 µF/km
in sea water
Table 1 : Fibre Optic Cable - Electrical
Characteristics

Figure 2 : LW, LWP, SA & DA Cable Types 2 DCFO OFFSHORE

Different types of fibre can be used for APPLICATIONS
different applications, following ITU-T 2.1 Concept
recommendations G.652, G.654 or G.655.
This single conductor submarine cable
The fibres are submarine specific and are
technology can be used to connect subsea
procured with a 1.8% screen test in order
control systems, either by tiebacks to a
to guarantee excellent cable mechanical
platform or with a step-out from land direct
and optical characteristics in service. Fibre
to a field.
ageing is also a guaranteed parameter at
0.005dB/km over the 25 year design life of Subsea control represents the system
the system. required for the safe and reliable operation
of the various subsea valves to control
While this cable design represents the best
either the production or injection wells of
mechanical protection for the fibres, the
an offshore field. Initially this control
subsea control applications will be using
function was performed with hydraulic
another key feature of the cable: its ability
systems. They have evolved firstly into
to transport DC power using the sea water
electro-hydraulic systems and now AC all
as the return path. The copper conductor in
electric systems with fibre communications
the cable is normally used to feed the wet
such as the Snøhvit 145km step-out in
plant equipment along the cable (repeaters)
Norway. However at these distances AC
but can also be used to provide power
transmission is becoming inefficient, as the
locally at some given locations. The cable
capacitance of the cables results in
electrical insulation is qualified to sustain a
significant losses in the power transport as
12kV DC operational voltage for 25 years,
shown in Figure 3 below.
and is compatible with the use of
electroding fault detection methods. Table
1 below gives the main electrical
characteristics our standard telecom fibre
optic cable.

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 conference & convention
Figure 3 : DC vs. AC Transport Efficiency
Building on the inherent advantages of the
submarine cable design, a “transport”
function can be defined based on this
DCFO solution to provide multiple subsea
users with secure optical communications
and an adequate level of local power.
Indeed, a number of different users can
benefit from this combined power and
communications solution. While subsea
control comes directly to mind, the
evolution of subsea instrumentation related
to reservoir monitoring (such as 4D
seismic), multi-phase flow metering or
flow assurance systems can also potentially
benefit from this technology.
As generally the case in the oil & gas
industry, redundant A+B paths will be
used to provide the proper level of service
availability while allowing maintenance of
the DCFO transport system. The subsea
box acting as the communication and
power source to each subsea user is called
a DCFO node.
Standard repeatered submarine cable
systems have proven DC powering for
much longer systems up to 12,000km, and
of course can offer communications for
equally long distances. As the capability of
subsea telecom cables is studied for
offshore applications, a number of their
networking features become attractive:
• Branching units can distribute power
and communications from a single
cable to several interfaces within a
field. This introduces the possibility of
conserving risers by using a single
cable for the control of a number of
fields;
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enabling the next generation of networks & services
• Duplicate cables can provide hot
standby capability, ensuring high
availability, ~ 99.99%, whilst still each
supporting multiple nodes;
• Connectivity could be provided for
additional subsea nodes on a permanent
or temporary basis by provisioning
extra fibres and underwater
terminations.
Figure 4 : Branching Unit (BU)
The key to rapid progress and successful
simple system integration is to develop
open interface standards, where possible
based on existing terrestrial standards and
practices.
For communications it is proposed to adopt
the widely used Ethernet standards. This is
fairly consistent with the move towards a
unified TCP/IP approach for most of the
interfaces subsea for either control or
instrumentation instead of the vast amount
of proprietary solutions that have been
used over the years.
The most suitable initial choice appears to
be gigabit ethernet (GbE). This offers high
capacity that will provide substantial
margin for future needs and good
availability of high reliability components
for practical modem and router
implementation. This communications
interface will be offered both subsea and
topside. Other options are available if more
bandwidth is required, for example at the
10GbE level.
Similarly, for subsea power, the provision
of a 375V DC supply allows a good
balance between efficient power
distribution and selection from the wide
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availability of components to be used gives a possible architecture for very long

within the control system. Furthermore, tie-backs using DCFO.
provision of power levels up to 10kW will
enable a range of subsea valve control
systems to operate, including direct valve
drive. This will be possible by converting
the 10kV DC transported by the copper
conductor of the cable into the 375V DC
secondary voltage. A Medium Voltage
Converter (MVC) will be used to perform
this conversion inside the DCFO Node.
Additionally a subsea mechanical
‘interface’ is required between the DCFO Figure 6 : Repeater
transport node and the control system or
instrumentation provider(s). Wet-mate
connectors may be used for the
communications and power, the
termination assembly will be a ‘lighter’
version of existing umbilical termination
assemblies.
2.2 Proposed Architectures
Figure 7 : Possible Repeatered DCFO System
Initially, it is expected that the first Architecture
applications will be relatively short in
length and will not require the use of in- 3 PROOF OF CONCEPT
line amplifiers also known as “repeaters”. In the summer of 2009, Alcatel-Lucent
Figure 5 below gives a possible installed the NEPTUNE Canada submarine
architecture for such a short haul tieback network consisting of a cable ring
using DCFO. This architecture ought to be connecting six undersea nodes to the Port
adequate for most of the oil fields where it Alberni shore station in the North East
is not practical to have very long export Pacific off the Vancouver Island [1].
lines due to the nature of the petroleum
that is extracted.

Figure 5 : Unrepeatered DCFO System

Architecture Figure 8 : NEPTUNE Canada Layout
In other applications where longer tie- This 850km system was purchased by the
backs are required, for gas fields for University of Victoria (UVic) to conduct
instance, repeaters can be inserted in the undersea science experiments over long
solution to lengthen the optical periods of times [2]. It demonstrates many
transmission distance. Figure 7 below of the DCFO capabilities and shows that
long distance, networked communications

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and power step outs are feasible. The
science nodes are gateways where the
oceanographers plug their science
instruments using ROV wet-mate
connectors [3]. Each science port available
at the node is able to provide 400V DC
with up to 25A of power and an optical
GbE connection. Each node is composed
of a Trawl Resistant Frame (TRF) where
the ROV serviceable node module can be
secured.
Figure 9 : NEPTUNE Canada Node and ROV
The node module itself is a mechanical
arrangement of two main pressure vessels
with syntactic foam made almost neutrally
buoyant. The work class ROVs currently
found on the oceanographic vessels used
by the scientists can handle the node
module.
Figure 10 : NEPTUNE Canada Node Module
The two pressure vessels are the Medium
Voltage Converter (MVC) and the Low
Voltage/Comms (LV/Comms) unit.
4 OPERATIONAL ASPECTS
It is paramount to evaluate the hazards that
submarine cables can face in order to
ensure that the proper choices are
implemented for cable protection. External
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aggressions can be considered as two
categories: the human factors and natural
factors. Human factors are mainly
commercial fishing, vessel anchors and
other seabed activities. Commercial fishing
is responsible for over 75% of cable
aggression faults and most trawler related
faults occur in less than 500m water depth.
Natural factors will be sea bed current,
marine life, hostile sea bed terrain, earth
quakes, underwater landslides, and
abrasion. These natural factors usually
account for less than 10% of cable faults.
Cable burial is the natural remedy against
bottom fishing and is a field proven and
effective means of protecting the cable
against bottom trawling. In stable seabed,
cable burial to over 0.75 metres is deemed
sufficient against fishing aggression.
Alcatel-Lucent owns and operates a fleet
of cable laying vessels equipped with deep
sea ploughs capable of installing the cable
up to 3m below the seafloor in soft soils.
ROVs are also used for trenching or to
perform other remedial work when the
conditions are such that ploughing cannot
be efficient. These DP2 vessels can
perform best in class installation and repair
operations even in adverse weather
conditions.
Figure 11 : Modern DP2 Cableship
The cable repair operations are based on
the use of cable jointing techniques
performed onboard the cable ship. Alcatel-
Lucent has developed as series of jointing
boxes using polyethylene over-moulding to
repair the cables in any circumstances.
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Figure 12 : Deep Sea Cable Jointing Box
Rapid and secure fault location is the key
to be able to perform fast repairs. This can
be achieved in a couple of ways depending
on the nature of the fault. Most faults are
shunt faults; where the cable is damaged in
such a way that the copper tube is exposed
to the seawater thereby creating an
electrical path to earth. In this case, the
fibres are not damaged and by re-balancing
the system voltage at both ends to put the
system zero voltage point at the shunt fault
location, the system can remain in service
until a repair can be scheduled. Electroding
is also possible allowing a probe to locate
the cable on the seabed.
5 CONCLUSIONS
The benefits of moving to a combined all-
electric control system combined with a
DCFO system include the following:
• No hydraulic operational costs;
• Reduced umbilical costs: The umbilical
can be simplified to fluid flow lines,
together with this low cost step-out;
• Improved system maintainability: The
flow lines and Power/Control lines are
independent, the redundant
Power/Control lines can be repaired
within a few days of mobilisation;
• Extended length capability: Up to
600km or more from shore limited by
the powering;
• Huge data capability: GbE, 10GbE are
available options, enabling improved
real-time applications, such as reservoir
monitoring and recovery;
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enabling the next generation of networks & services
• Multi-field capability from one step-
out: Offering potential economies for
host platforms supporting many fields.
The mature telecom cable technology can
provide for high reliability communication
and power distribution in all offshore
environments. This technology tackles all
the requirements at once:
• Real-time broadband communications
• Undersea networking and connection
• Extended reach
• Environment independency
• Future proof
• Proven and economic.
The competence to implement such
solutions is available from the subsea
communications industry, which has
provided the infrastructure for the
transformation of international
telecommunications since the rollout of
subsea fibre over 20 years ago. These
achievements have been based on seamless
design and qualification, comprehensive
system integration testing and consistent
application of standards.
The value proposition to the oil and gas
industry is a new asset management
approach for deployment of the fields of
the future and enhancement of mature
fields alike.
In arrangements similar to the NEPTUNE
Canada solution, the cable associated with
a subsea DC/DC converter can be the
prime vector for new subsea control and
instrumentation systems. For this
application, specific architectures based on
duplicated feeds would be used. Fail-safe
mechanisms as well as full supervision of
all the functions along the control chain are
also mandatory. While a DCFO solution
for offshore oil & gas applications would
be subject to different constraints from
solutions for scientific needs, the proof of
concept already exists and the adaptation
of the solution to the specific needs of
subsea control and instrumentation appears
within reach.
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6 REFERENCES
[1] A. Lecroart, N. Shaheen, P. Shawyer,
“Cable Science Observatories Solutions:
Bringing Power and Broadband
Communication to the Ocean Depths”,
SubOptic 2007, Baltimore, USA, Paper
TuA2.4.
[2] NEPTUNE Canada Website:
http://neptunecanada.ca/infrastructure
[3] P. Phibbs, R. Cook, “NEPTUNE
Canada Cable Ocean Observatory - Now a
Reality”, SubOptic 2010, Yokohama,
Japan.

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