Wave energy-powered buoy deployed at North Sea Huntington field

Aug. 26, 2019

Offshore staff

MONROE TOWNSHIP, New Jersey – Ocean Power Technologies Inc. has deployed its PB3 PowerBuoy at Premier Oil’s Huntington field in the UK central North Sea.

The system will serve as an autonomous intelligent platform to provide communications and remote monitoring services.

During the field trial, Premier will investigate the system’s ability to monitor the local environment and alert ships of the field’s safety zone as a potential solution to help with its future decommissioning related operations.

This deployment begins a nine-month lease, subject to meeting a number of acceptance criteria in the first three months. The lease also includes an option to extend the initial nine-month lease, as well as a purchase option.

The project is backed by the Aberdeen-based Oil & Gas Technology Centre, which has provided co-funding, support, and technical input to the monitoring requirements for the buoy.

Paul Williams, UK Business Unit Manager at Premier, said: “This is a great opportunity to prove new technology which will enable us to minimize the environmental impact of our decommissioning programs, whilst maintaining flexibility to deliver maximum economic recovery from our fields.

“Assuming success, we will look at the potential to deploy this technology on other assets and for different purposes, both in the UK and further afield.”

08/26/2019