Petrobras’ offshore fiber network to be completed in 2025

A project by Brazil’s federal oil firm Petrobras to connect 25 platforms in the Santos and Campos basins with fiber optics is on track to wrap up in the first quarter of 2025, BNamericas was told.

Specifically, the delivery date is for the Campos basin project, the newest of the two, Fernando Brazil, head of business development at Zmax Group’s Blue Marine Telecom, told BNamericas.

Zmax’s offshore telecoms unit Blue Marine won both tenders launched by Petrobras. The 1.4bn-real (US$283mn) Santos basin contract was inked in December 2021. Zmax won that tender in consortium with Planova.

The 1.1bn-real Campos basin contract was signed in June this year, according to the executive.

“The Santos basin project is in full swing. [August 30] was a very important milestone in this project, as we concluded the shore-end, which is the connection of the trunking cable to the shores, at Macumba beach, in Rio de Janeiro,” said Brazil.

For these shore-end services, Blue Marine sub-contracted specialized firm Gulf Marine, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gulf Oil International, part of the United Arab Emirates’ Hinduja Group.

In total, 1,200km of fiber optics are being deployed in the Santos basin to connect 13 platforms and FPSOs initially, according to Brazil. These units are the PMXL-1, P-66, P-67, P-68, P-69, P-70, P-74, P-75, P-76, P-77 and P-71, in addition to the Guanabara and Sepetiba FPSOs.

The Santos project is on track and roughly 60% advanced, with completion estimated for March 2024, Brazil said.

In the Campos basin, works are still in the engineering, site survey and cable landing stations visiting phase. Cable deployment is set to begin in the second half of 2024, with completion slated for March 2025.

The system will comprise a 433km ring-shaped trunk optical cable connecting the landing stations in Anchieta (Espírito Santo state) and Quissamã (Rio de Janeiro), as well as 113km of cables for the project's network branches, including three possible future branches, 14km of terrestrial and topside cables, and 127km of umbilical cables linking 12 units.

The offshore units to be connected are P-48, P-56, P-51, P-43, P-40, PRA-1, P-55, P-52, P- 62, P-54, P-57 and P-58. Blue Marine must follow this sequence for deployment.

Blue Marine Telecom contracted as supplier and cable installer for both projects China's HMN Tech, formerly owned by Huawei but now controlled by the Hengtong group. Originally, HMN stood for Huawei Marine Networks.

In 2020, Hengtong completed the 81% acquisition of Huawei Marine Networks and rebranded it HMN Technologies. The UK's New Saxon 2019 holds the remaining 19%.

To date, HMN Tech claims to have deployed over 80,000km of submarine network systems across the globe. 

In Brazil, Hengtong is also supplying, through its local subsidiary HT Cabos, another signature underwater fiber project: the Infovia 01 stretch of the sub-fluvial Norte Conectado backbone project in the Amazon.

For the more advanced Santos basin project, the entire cabling has been tested and validated by Blue Marine and Petrobras, and is being rolled out from the Bold Maverick specialized vessel.

For Petrobras, the offshore fiber networks are also key for its project of private 4G and possibly 5G networks serving 29 platforms in the Campos and Santos basins by the end of 2024.

Nokia is antennas supplier for this project and Telefônica Brasil provides the network, but the wireless transmission equipment will be connected to fiber networks.

In parallel to that offshore fiber grid, Petrobras launched a process for selling its onshore fiber network, but this divestment could be halted.

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Petrobras' onshore fiber network