Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK –The Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) has issued an update on its activities.
Over the past 18 months, it has supported six projects to completion and a further 11 are underway involving collaborations between Scottish companies and Scottish universities.
OGIC and the companies have committed £1 million ($1.32 million) to the various programs and a further 80-plus projects are in development that could attract £2.5 million ($3.3 million) of investments for research and development.
Completed OGIC-supported projects have led to development of near-to–market technologies to address issues on the UK continental shelf (UKCS), including a new insulating product for subsea pipelines and the testing of a new well intervention product.
Current projects include Aberdeen-basedXodus working with the University of Dundee on decommissioning of subsea structures and Badger ASA working with the University of Glasgow to develop a novel well-drilling tool.
OGIC’s focus is on technologies that will assist in the recovery of UK oil and gas reserves in the areas of exploration; well construction, drilling and completions; enhanced oil recovery; asset integrity and life extension; subsea; product optimisation anddecommissioning.
Projects are evaluated against criteria relevant to OGIC’s areas of technology focus and are subject to technical peer review by OGIC’s independent project review panel before financial approval by the board.
Chief Executive Ian Phillips said: “Through the Technology Leadership Board, the UK oil and gas industry has identified its priority areas for technology development – wells, small pools, asset integrity and decommissioning – that address the immediate challenges in the UKCS, and encouraging progress is being made against these.
“The next step is to capitalize on the opportunity presented by the new Oil & Gas Technology Centre, backed by £180 million [$238 million] of Government funding via the Aberdeen City Region Deal, to take these initiatives forward…
“This recession has focused minds on costs and efficiency and irrespective of where oil prices move this has been a necessary recalibration for the industry. Hopefully positives will come out of this in terms of true collaboration and a greater openness towards innovation and implementation of technology, processes and business models in what has historically been a risk-averse sector. The rewards of a greater openness to innovation will be even higher when the oil price recovers.
7/18/2016
