TETRA system for gas refinery

Zenitel is supplying a Motorola TETRA system to the Ormen Lange gas refinery in Aukra, on the west coast of Norway.

The refinery supplies 20% of Britain's natural gas and is the second largest gas field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

The deal will be the first TETRA system from Motorola that will be delivered to the oil and gas industry in Norway.

The agreement consists of Motorola's Dimetra IP compact TETRA infrastructure and ATEX TETRA radios with GPS positioning. In addition, Zenitel's own range of repeaters will be used for expanding the radio coverage into confined areas or anywhere where a high level of system robustness or redundancy is required.

"This project confirms the shift from traditional analog UHF/VHF radio systems to digital systems in Norway is now starting," said Thor Ivar Gikling, sales director of Zenitel Wireless Norway.

TETRA is the same system as used by the Norwegian public safety network Nodnett.

An advantage of TETRA to the oil and gas sector is the ability of the system to combine with ordinary phone and pager services. This helps to limit the number of portable devices used and makes both use and service easier and cheaper.