By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Feb. 11 -- The UK group Industry Technology Facilitator has this year secured £8 million toward the development of new oil and gas technologies to be applied in the North Sea.
The ITF promotes the development of technology through joint industry projects.
Last year, approval was given for 30 projects, including two major collaborative programs. More than 250 proposals were submitted.
The group expects a similar level of activity this year.
It will seek proposals in the subsurface, wells and facilities areas. The focus remains on technologies to underpin the vision of PILOT, the government-industry initiative, to maintain UKCS competitiveness, maximize economic recovery of the nation's indigenous oil and gas reserves, and preserve jobs. Key topics will include long subsea tiebacks, emissions control, and brownfield recovery and reservoir management.
"Technology will be the key to unlocking Britain's estimated remaining reserves of between 26-34 billion boe," said ITF's managing director, David Ellix. "The technologies being developed for the UK today should lead to more successful exploration, maximum recovery of reserves and improved competitiveness in the North Sea. But they also have potential for worldwide application."
The ITF is working on two key projects now: the structurally complex reservoirs program, established to promote technology advances in the areas of detection and prediction of geological faults and fractures, and their properties, and the seismic reservoir characterization program, established to promote technology advances in the areas of seismic resolution and rapid prediction of reservoir performance from seismic data. The two programs, each lasting 3 years, consist of nine interlinked projects led by major UK and overseas universities.
They will be funded by a consortium of 10 oil companies and the UK Department of Trade and Industry.
Other projects launched last year include an adaptation of a pipeline pig to detect corrosion, a downhole electric cutting tool, two produced water cleanup techniques, and an examination of alternatives to umbilicals for subsea power supply.
The Industry Technology Facilitator is a not for profit company established as an initiative of the Oil and Gas Industry Task Force, now PILOT. ITF is funded by subscription by 15 member oil companies, and was supported in its first year by the DTI.
