Today’s deepwater discoveries are impressive in size and scope. Developing these finds requires ongoing technological advances in many areas including geology, geophysics, drilling, production, subsea processing, intervention, and environmental remediation to name only a few.
Much of the required innovation will come from within the petroleum industry. Nonetheless, there are compelling reasons why the petroleum industry should also look externally to the many small and mid-sized companies operating in other industries. These smaller enterprises often have limited public exposure and are overlooked easily, yet they are havens of technological progress. Backed by funding from angel investors, venture capital funds, and other sources, these young companies quietly generate promising breakthroughs. The extent of this funding varies; but it is not unusual for an early-stage company to consume $5 million, $10 million, or even more before producing commercial products.
By reaching out to these nascent companies, the petroleum industry can leverage the substantial risk capital provided by other sources. Furthermore, if serial number 001 of the technology is being tested or used in another industry, this helps to overcome the early adopter reluctance sometimes encountered in the offshore petroleum industry.
For example, advances in electronics are allowing the suitcase-sized Electron Spin Resonance spectrometer to be miniaturized and converted into a diagnostic device similar in size to a hockey puck. This compact instrument can continuously monitor lubricating fluids in offshore compressors or other rotating equipment to detect the imminent breakdown of those lubricants. There are strong indications this same technology can be incorporated in subsea flowlines to detect the real-time formation of hydrates at even parts per million concentrations.
In another instance, a small venture funded company is marketing a new class of electro-resistive coatings. These advanced coatings display several order of magnitude improvements in electrical resistivity compared with existing technology. The coatings are a few thousandths of an inch thick and can be applied to flat, cylindrical, or irregularly shaped surfaces on metals, some ceramics, glass, and certain polymers. This company is investigating subsea pipeline and seabed wellhead applications for this breakthrough heating material.
An early stage company in the materials arena is applying a unique nano and micro lamination process to produce interleaved metal alloys, refractory metals, ceramics, and composites. Each layer literally is grown in place via a cost-effective, room temperature deposition process. The resulting material is analogous to metal “plywood” with hundreds of thousands of individual metal “plys”. Products made via this process exhibit crack and corrosion resistance under high-pressure/high-temperature conditions. They also have other valuable properties consistent with offshore, subsea, and deep well applications.
A small company associated with the manufacturing industry has developed a search engine for digitized 3D content. The software can recognize fine details and identify similar 3D representations even if the 3D files have different orientations in the database. Initial applications are in complex manufacturing activities involving large databases, as a cost savings and supply chain management tool. This same software also may have offshore exploration and production applications. The company’s automated shape encoder is independent of the shape file format. Consequently, a 3D seismic database is encoded in the same manner as a database of mechanical components. This means the software may be capable of real-time searches for comparable shapes in seismic datasets or other petroleum industry databases containing 3D subsurface information.
A long-life power source for seabed seismic nodes, autonomous underwater vehicles, and other deepwater applications is nearing commercialization by a California-based company. The development process has taken over a decade and has required substantial funding from the U.S. military and other sources, but the resulting lithium-seawater battery boasts impressive power densities. It weighs less than other offshore battery chemistries, is able to withstand pressures up to 10,000 psi and discharges uniformly for over a year without maintenance.
These and many other technologies have cross-over applications in the offshore petroleum industry. Locating the companies developing these breakthroughs requires a degree of effort; however the potential benefits to the offshore industry are substantial.
John C. Barratt
Oil & Gas Innovation Center
This page reflects viewpoints on the political, economic, cultural, technological, and environmental issues that shape the future of the petroleum industry. Offshore Magazine invites you to share your thoughts. Email your Beyond the Horizon manuscript to Eldon Ball at[email protected].
