CapRock Communications announced a multi-year agreement with Atwood Oceanics to provide VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) connectivity to its global fleet of offshore assets. As a premier international offshore drilling and completions contractor, Atwood requires reliable communications to deliver premium drilling services to its exploration and production clients.

With CapRock's turnkey VSAT solution -- including equipment, installation, satellite service and 24/7 network monitoring and support -- onboard Atwood's entire fleet, crews have access to the same, dependable service regardless of which rig they occupy.

"By consolidating our fleet under one communications provider, our remote personnel will experience a consistent, reliable solution whether they are on assignment in the Gulf of Mexico or off the coast of Australia," said Atwood Oceanics IT Director Tim Osburn. "We are confident that CapRock has designed the best communication solution to support our worldwide operations."

Under the terms of agreement, CapRock will deploy stabilized antenna platforms across Atwood's geographically dispersed fleet, consisting of five semisubmersibles (including one tender assist rig), three jackups and one submersible all located throughout the Gulf of Mexico, Europe, Africa and Asia. CapRock will provide the offshore rigs, plus two new build semisubmersibles presently under construction in Singapore and a regional office located in Equatorial Guinea, with voice and data service and access to Atwood's corporate network so that remote personnel can utilize business applications, as well as other data and document management systems required to maintain business operations. A portion of the bandwidth will be provisioned on every drilling rig to support Atwood's crew amenities program, which includes wireless access points, Internet access and SafePass, CapRock's Web content-filtering solution.

Tags: CapRock Communications