Blog Kars Marcelis: Remote Operations is gaining momentum: what two weeks in Asia taught us about the future of offshore control rooms

Two weeks in Asia, two major international trade shows and a series of visits to technology partners and knowledge institutions. Together with my colleague Mark de Greef, I represented INTER at Gastech in Thailand, followed by the World FPSO Congress in Singapore. Two events with very different dynamics, but with one clear common thread: Remote Operations. In almost every conversation, it became clear that organisations are actively exploring how processes can increasingly be monitored, supported and ultimately controlled from onshore locations.

Our journey started at Gastech. This was the first time INTER attended the event, and the sheer scale alone was impressive. Gastech brings together oil majors, EPCs, FPSO builders, technology companies and many other players from across the international energy market. What stood out most was the amount of knowledge and pride within the industry. Everyone speaks passionately about their own process, installation or technology. For us, those conversations were particularly valuable: rather than starting by explaining what we can do, we focused on listening to what organisations are working on and the challenges they are facing.

Remote Operations came up remarkably often. At the same time, we noticed that in many situations, "remote" still mainly means remote monitoring: gaining insight into processes and systems from a distance, while the actual control remains local. That is exactly where we see the next step emerging. At INTER, we have been focusing on the development of Remote Operations within the offshore industry for some time, and the potential benefits are clear. Fewer people offshore can contribute to higher safety and lower operational costs, while specialist knowledge can be made centrally available. Engineers and specialists do not always need to travel to an offshore asset and can provide support faster from a central location.

In between all the technical discussions, there was fortunately also some time to experience Thailand beyond the exhibition halls. Our partner Evans took us on a traditional Thai food tour: a great evening, good conversations and probably more different dishes than we had expected beforehand. These moments make international partnerships more personal and allow conversations to continue beyond the trade show floor.

From source system to onshore control room
A Remote Operations Control Room is not created by simply sending a video signal ashore. The entire chain has to work. From the source system on an FPSO, through a reliable and secure network connection, all the way to the operator in the onshore control room. AV/IT infrastructure, cybersecurity, redundancy, documentation, certifications and the physical operator environment all come together in this chain.

This is exactly where we see INTER's role: as the integrator and architect of the overall concept. We look at the complete chain and bring different technologies and disciplines together into one working environment. Barco CTRL, the KVM platform from our partner Barco, is an essential part of this architecture. The technology enables different source systems to be made securely available to operators, regardless of where those systems are physically located.

Cybersecurity as an integral part of the design
When critical processes are controlled remotely, cybersecurity naturally becomes even more important. That made our visit to the iTrust Centre for Research in Cyber Security at the Singapore University of Technology and Design particularly interesting. Cybersecurity is not only studied theoretically here, but also tested in practical environments.

iTrust has physical installations that allow cyberattacks to be simulated in real time, including a water distribution system, a water treatment plant and a ship bridge. This allows researchers to test what actually happens when industrial systems are attacked and what impact specific vulnerabilities can have on a process. They also test hardware for vulnerabilities and use different honeypots to analyse how hackers approach systems, which methods they use and what they are looking for.

For us, this once again confirmed that cybersecurity is not a standalone component of a modern control room. Especially as processes become increasingly accessible remotely, security needs to be incorporated into the overall design from the outset. The same applies to documentation, certification and network architecture: these are not additions to be addressed afterwards, but prerequisites for a reliable Remote Operations solution.

Working with Barco in Singapore
During our trip, we also visited Barco's Asian headquarters. International collaboration has become increasingly important for INTER, particularly in offshore projects where technology, engineering and project teams are often spread across multiple countries. Maintaining strong local connections with the teams of our technology partners therefore adds real value, allowing us to jointly explore market opportunities, customer requirements and technical developments.That collaboration took a very tangible form at the World FPSO Congress: together with Barco, we presented the Remote Operations Control Room concept. It brought INTER's integration role and Barco's technology together in one live, working demonstration.

And of course, strong international collaboration sometimes continues outside the meeting room. The local Barco team took us out for a Singaporean seafood experience, including king crab and hotpot. A great way to continue the conversations after a long exhibition day while also experiencing some of the local culture.The operator environment has to work too
A Remote Operations Control Room is naturally about more than technology alone. Ultimately, the operator remains central, and the physical workplace needs to support the way people actually work. That is why we also visited the Experience Center of Datumstruct, a local Barco partner specialising in custom-built consoles.Datumstruct has extensive experience with consoles and desks for FPSOs and offshore rigs, which aligns well with our own focus in this market. Their consoles were also part of our stand at the World FPSO Congress. This allowed us to demonstrate the Remote Operations concept not only from a technical perspective, but also in a realistic operator environment. It made the concept much more tangible for visitors and showed that successful Remote Operations ultimately depends on the combination of technology, infrastructure and people.

World FPSO Congress: from concept to practice
At the World FPSO Congress, many elements of our trip ultimately came together. Together with Barco, we presented a working Remote Operations concept, allowing visitors to see how different source systems can be made available in a remote control room via Barco CTRL.

What stood out most was how quickly visitors started projecting the concept onto their own processes. We barely had to explain why Remote Operations could be relevant. Questions quickly followed: Can we connect this system? Can multiple locations be connected? Can our specialists provide support from another location? And what about connectivity, cybersecurity and latency?

Those reactions made it clear that Remote Operations is gaining real traction within the offshore market. Visitors did not just see a demonstration; they immediately started thinking about how it could be applied to their own assets and processes. That gives us many concrete starting points for follow-up conversations.

An important distinction is that our concept goes beyond monitoring alone. While many Remote Operations solutions today are still primarily focused on viewing and monitoring, our concept also enables processes to be controlled remotely. This development is also becoming increasingly tangible from a classification perspective: in 2024, Liza Unity became the first FPSO in the world to receive ABS's REMOTE-CON notation for remote-control functionality. This underlines that remote control is becoming an increasingly concrete part of offshore operations.

Connectivity as the next building block
Another topic that generated a great deal of interest during the event was connectivity. For these kinds of applications, fibre-optic connections laid across oceans and seas are widely used today. However, not every asset has access to the same infrastructure, which is why we are increasingly exploring the role satellite connectivity could play within Remote Operations.

Developments in satellite connectivity are moving quickly, and at the World FPSO Congress we noticed strong interest from several organisations in the possibilities this could offer. For us, this means looking not only at what is technically possible today, but also at the infrastructure required to make Remote Operations scalable on a global level.

Remote Operations is gaining momentum
After two weeks in Asia, one thing is clear: Remote Operations is no longer a theoretical development. Across the offshore industry, organisations are actively exploring how processes can be monitored, supported and ultimately controlled to an increasing extent from onshore locations.

This is not about a single product or technology, but about the complete chain. From the source system on the FPSO to connectivity, cybersecurity, KVM technology, ergonomics, certification and ultimately the operator in the onshore control room. That is precisely where we see INTER's role: bringing different technologies and disciplines together into one reliable end-to-end concept.

The most important conclusion after two weeks in Asia? The question is becoming less about whether Remote Operations will play a role offshore, and increasingly about how we can take that step safely, reliably and in an operationally responsible way.

And that is exactly the next step we are keen to help shape.