OTC recognizes 2026 Spotlight on New Technology Award winners
The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) has announced the winners of the 2026 Spotlight on New Technology Award, celebrating “the boldest advances shaping the future of offshore energy.”
OTC says that this year’s program highlights 17 breakthrough technologies—four from small businesses—that bring fresh thinking and real-world performance across drilling, completions, subsea systems, AI and more.
Selected for originality, technical ingenuity, demonstrated results and commercial potential, these innovations promise to improve safety, efficiency and sustainability across the offshore value chain, says OTC.
From autonomous well construction and advanced bit intelligence to AI-driven geotechnical models and next-generation subsea push systems, OTC says that the lineup underscores how rapid technological progress is unlocking new possibilities for operators and service providers alike.
The 2026 Spotlight on New Technology Award Winners, in alphabetical order, are:
- Baker Hughes — Kantori autonomous well construction solution
- Bosch Rexroth — eSEA Push
- Bosch Rexroth Hägglunds — Hägglunds Thunder
- CNPC USA Corporation — Monobore Expandable Casing Technology
- CNPC USA Corporation — UltraSense — UHTHP Bit Intelligence
- Fugro — Fugro GeoAI Framework
- HYTORC — TorcSync
- i2k Connect Inc. — EnrgLLM
- KeyDrill Technology LLC — KeyDrill Gyro While Drilling (KGWD)
- Oliden Technology, LLC — MaxFusion
- Oil States — GeoLok
- Oil States — MPD Drill Ahead Tool
- SLB — Retina at-bit imaging system
- SLB — FIV-III dual-trigger formation isolation valve
- TB Global Technologies Ltd. — CHOKUSEN
- TB Global Technologies Ltd. — Harmless Emergency Release System for Offshore Ammonia Transfer
- Teledyne Marine — eXtreamer.
The small business award winners, in alphabetical order, are:
- HYTORC — TorcSync
- i2k Connect Inc. — EnrgLLM
- KeyDrill Technology LLC — KeyDrill Gyro While Drilling (KGWD)
- Oliden Technology, LLC — MaxFusion.
Since 2014, OTC’s Spotlight program has highlighted the inventive work of small businesses alongside industry leaders. Small-business eligibility requires independent ownership (or nonprofit status) and fewer than 300 employees in the 12 months before the application deadline.
The 2026 Spotlight on New Technology winners will be honored at OTC on Monday, May 4th at NRG Center in Houston, Texas. For details about the award and recipient technologies, visit the OTC Spotlight on New Technology Award page at www.otcnet.org.
In case you missed last year's event:
About the Author
Bruce Beaubouef
Managing Editor
Bruce Beaubouef is Managing Editor for Offshore magazine. In that capacity, he plans and oversees content for the magazine; writes features on technologies and trends for the magazine; writes news updates for the website; creates and moderates topical webinars; and creates videos that focus on offshore oil and gas and renewable energies. Beaubouef has been in the oil and gas trade media for 25 years, starting out as Editor of Hart’s Pipeline Digest in 1998. From there, he went on to serve as Associate Editor for Pipe Line and Gas Industry for Gulf Publishing for four years before rejoining Hart Publications as Editor of PipeLine and Gas Technology in 2003. He joined Offshore magazine as Managing Editor in 2010, at that time owned by PennWell Corp. Beaubouef earned his Ph.D. at the University of Houston in 1997, and his dissertation was published in book form by Texas A&M University Press in September 2007 as The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: U.S. Energy Security and Oil Politics, 1975-2005.