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Hughes Network Systems announced Tuesday that it signed an eight-year service contract with Network Services Solutions (NSS) to upgrade, expand and manage a satellite monitoring network for one of NSS’ large petroleum customers.

NSS, a wholly owned subsidiary of SatWays, provides connectivity to this unnamed petroleum customer through a network that includes: more than 1,300 very small aperture terminals (VSATs) installed along a pipeline route; a group of network operations centers; and Ku-band capacity on the EchoStar 105 satellite.

Hughes and NSS are long-time collaborators on network management projects involving NSS energy customers. Hughes explained that this new agreement includes NSS adopting a system-wide upgrade to Hughes’ Jupiter high-throughput geostationary VSAT platform.

Financial details of the contract were not disclosed.

“For a critical network like an oil pipeline, a geostationary satellite service offers the ideal connectivity, with continent-wide coverage, robust capacity and an affordable cost-per-bit,” Dan Rasmussen, senior vice president of Hughes’ Enterprise Division said in the announcement.

“At NSS, we are driven to provide affordable and simple private business networks. Thus delivering a sensible alternative for companies facing ever-growing demands for fast, reliable and secure data communication,” NSS President Ali Mohadjer added.