Issue 31 September 2007

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specification was to keep trackof dangerous cargoes. Thewaters are very harsh and theregion is in permanent dark-ness for six months each year.And it was necessary to super-vise the increasing tanker traf-fic navigating the area,’explains Sperre.

Safety focusAll ships over 5000gt and

ocean towages entering theNorwegian Exclusive Econom-ic Zone (EEZ) are requested toreport to the Vardø VTS whenentering the coverage area.Operators typically monitorabout 200 vessels daily, ofwhich 10-20 receive specialattention due to their size orrisk of pollution. Sperrebelieves that the safety recordof tankers has, together withtheir size, increased in recentyears. ‘In general, they are bet-ter maintained and in bettercondition,’ he states.

Nonetheless, there arealways exceptions to the rule.

Based around C-Scope technologyfrom Kongsberg Nor-control IT, the new

Vardø VTS enables the Norwe-gian Coastal Administration tomonitor ships from the Russianborder in the Barents Sea toRørvik, Norway.

It is located at 70°21’N –31°02’E, making it one of thenorthernmost VTS operations inthe world. And covering some11 000km of coastline, a figurewhich increases to 25 000km ifislands are included, it is alsoone of the world’s largest. Infact, says Project ManagerHogne Sperre, it is equivalentto the distance around theearth’s equator. ‘Flying fromtop to bottom could take up totwo and a half hours,’ he adds.

The primary function of thesystem is to monitor the oil andgas transportation along theenvironmentally sensitive Nor-wegian coastline, where fish-eries and tourism are keyindustries. ‘A key aspect of the

Maritime IT & Electronics September 2007

In January this year one of theworld’s largest VTS was switchedon at Vardø on the northern tipof Norway. MIT&E takes a look atthe technical specification

‘The condition of some Russianvessels is questionable and ifthey experience, for instance,engine trouble they are notforthcoming with this informa-tion. They sometimes inexplica-bly lose speed and as a resulttheir movements can be unpre-dictable. This presents a safetyrisk not only to themselves butalso to other vessels nearby,’ hesays. To reduce this risk, if avessel’s speed falls below a cer-tain threshold, an alarm israised on the VTS operator sta-tion.

Furthermore not all vesselshave access to sufficientlyaccurate or up-to-date naviga-tional charts. If this is the case,the VTS operators may berequired to guide the vessel,especially during difficultweather/rough seas in the win-ter. Another task is to overseeship-to-ship cargo transfer. ‘Weare seeing more and more ice-classed tankers. Once theyreach northern Norway, thecargo they are carrying is trans-

ferred on to conventional ves-sels. From an environmentalperspective, this is a particular-ly risky operation,’ explainsSperre.

Indeed just two monthsafter the Vardø VTS wentonline, it proved its worth whenthe VTS team had to work inclose cooperation with the Nor-wegian Joint Rescue Coordina-tion Centre at Bodø to assist insaving the 101m long oil tanker,BBC Iceland, from grounding.The ship was carrying a mixtureof pollutants including heavyoil and diesel oil and at onepoint was only 1nm from shore.

This incident also demon-strated the effectiveness of theprocedures put in place foroperators. According to Sperre,designing these operational pro-cedures is typically one of thebiggest challenges involved inensuring the success of a proj-ect. The task was made all themore difficult by having to caterfor international — and in par-ticular Russian — traffic as well

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this has been to develop trans-port corridors and the introduc-tion of an IMO approvedmandatory traffic routing systemalong a 600nm route betweenVardø and Rørvik. This routingsystem consists of eight separateTraffic Separation Schemes (TSS)and seven recommendedroutes, with the objective ofshifting maritime traffic about30nm from the coast of Norwayand thus increase response timefor oil-spill operations.

Extended functionalityAnother characteristic is

improved integration with mete-orological data services. Weath-er maps are continuously down-loaded and, depending on theVTS operator’s preference, canbe superimposed as an extralayer of information on the con-sole, with arrows and differentcolours showing current or fore-casted pressure, wind directionand speed, wave types. As withother external resources, theinformation is piped by the Mes-sageCentral interface.

Data stored on the intraneton the operational status of nav-igational aids such as lighthous-es and buoys — invaluable foroperators trying to guide a ves-sel remotely — can also bechannelled in a similar way.

Furthermore MessageCen-tral can be programmed to peri-odically check for updated nav-igational charts. If a newer ver-sion is found to exist, this willbe automatically downloaded.However the decision whetheror not to load the new dataremains with the administrator.

In addition to AIS and con-ventional radar, Kongsberg islooking to incorporate KSATinto the VTS system. Regularreaders of MITE will recall thatKSAT provides tracking imagesvia satellite and, apart fromwatching vessel traffic, can beutilised to monitor icebergs topredict their speed and course(see MITE, July/August 2007,p22). While this is still under-going development, Sperrebelieves it could prove to be auseful extra tool in both envi-ronmental and Search And Res-cue operations. �

ticular Russian — traffic as wellas a growing number of cruiseand other passenger vessels.

Operator support The Vardø VTS includes

multiple VTS operator worksta-tions, dedicated maintenancefacility, and redundant webinterface. A distinguishing fea-ture, however, is the specialOperator Support System (OSS),which is in place next to thestandard graphical chart inter-face. The OSS — developed bythe Norwegian-outfit AllianceSoftware based in Stavanger —is in many ways similar to Per-sonal Information Management(PIM) system, but has been spe-cially tailored to take intoaccount the extra risk factorsinvolved in vessel tracking. Forexample, it provides a reposito-ry for storing and distributinginformation relating to a vessel’sexpected route and arrival timeas well as any known history ofaccidents.

However the OSS is notwired to the VTS directly. Com-munication between the twoapplications is achieved via anintermediary programmeknown as MessageCentral,which was developed in-houseat Kongsberg but is broadlybased on Microsoft’s BizTalkarchitecture. This solution notonly binds the OSS to the VTSbut also allows other connec-tions, primarily the CoastalAdministration’s intranet andexternally to the internet.

This architecture, saysSperre, can be harnessed in var-ious ways. As an example, theoperator can select a track inthe VTS, pull it up in the OSSand display dynamic data eitherfrom the AIS or that other oper-ators have inserted. Message-Central will then accessresources on the internet tocheck for relevant data fromSafetyNet and other ship data-bases, and collate and presentthis information to the operator.

Sperre says: ‘The system hasbeen a long time in the makingand it is still very new. But theextra connectivity it provides isinvaluable to the VTS operator. Itis an immensely powerful tool.’

He believes that a similar

architecture will be used infuture projects. ‘BizTalk utilisesweb-services to communicatewith external databases. It satis-fies a need for an integrated yetopen approach, which isincreasingly being called for,especially for bigger projects,’he maintains.

Military radarEight of the sensors in the

Vardo VTS network are NATOfunded military radars. Accord-ing to the specification theseneeded to be directly connect-ed with the AIS, but securityrestrictions imposed by NATOmeant this was not possible. Aworkaround was developed bywhich there are two interfaces.One provides a non-sensitivedata stream for purely civilianpurposes, while the other offersa higher level of resolution butis isolated and only accessibleto the VTS operators.

There is also an option toinstall a newly constructedcivilian radar station, whichwill be funded by Statoil. TheNorwegian oil company’s inter-est in ensuring safety of naviga-tion in the region is clear. It isheavily involved in the Snøhvitproject, the first offshore devel-opment in the Barents Sea. Theproject will exploit theresources of three gas fields inthe Barents Sea; Snøhvit, Alba-tross and Askeladd, which lieabout 75nm northwest of Ham-merfest in Norway. The process-ing plant on Melkøya isEurope’s first export facility forliquefied natural gas (LNG).These activities have all con-tributed to the increased num-ber of vessels transiting Nor-way’s Arctic coastline.

The Norwegian governmenthas imposed stringent environ-mental requirements on the off-shore oil and gas industry. Part of

The operator has four

screens. The two to the right are

the VTS screen and actual

traffic. The two screens to the

left are the OSS and an

administration PC

�

Weather maps are continu-

ously downloaded and, depending

on the VTS operator’s prefer-

ence, can be superimposed on

the console

�

Maritime IT & Electronics September 2007

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