In this era of accountancy-led corporate thinking, where short term gain is the norm, research bodies have to adapt to survive.
Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), a research body geared to producing marketable technologies, has spent 18 months rethinking its strategy.
"The short term approach dries up research," said IFP Pres. Francis Gutmann. He believes cutting research at times of low oil prices will lead to loss of competitiveness for some companies.
"A fresh oil crisis might well break out one day," Gutmann said. It will stem from economics -- not politics -- because spending needed to meet rising demand will not have been made in time.
With oil prices expected to remain relatively low, future spending for research will need to be financed by returns from reduced exploration risks and production costs, he said.
Gutmann believes IFP's outlook must remain long term, yet it must stay tuned in to the market to keep anticipating its needs. Like oil companies, IFP sees opportunities in partnerships and increases in the yield from assets.
Partnerships
"While relations with French partners are essential," Gutmann said, "IFP can survive only by operating on a worldwide basis."
IFP's leading partner is the U.S., followed by Japan and France. Then, showing the growing importance of Asia, come India, China, and South Korea, with Latin America gaining in significance.
"Nor can we be satisfied with merely selling technology licenses," Gutmann said. IFP is said to be the world's second largest process licenser, with more than 1,000 refining and petrochemicals licenses sold in 30 years.
Royalties on licenses contributed 250 million ($52 million) to IFP's total budget of 1.7 billion ($355 million) last year.
A recent project shows the new approach by IFP. IFP has won a contract to boost oil production in Russia by using chemicals to inhibit water production. Payment will be proportional to increased production.
Archive research
Another research body has produced statistics that suggest it may be worth sending researchers to occasionally dust off archives rather than have them stay in the laboratory in search of new ideas.
U.K.'s Patent Office, an agency of the Department of Trade & Industry, reckons European industries waste more than 20 billion ($32 billion)/year by duplicating research.
"Anyone engaged in research who ignores published patent information does so at their risk," said Ted Blake, director of marketing at the Patent Office. "Over 30 million patents have been published worldwide. Each year, a million new ones appear."
Blake is promoting a search and advisory service. This enables customers to check for duplication against details of 4 million patents held at the Patent Office. These include U.K. patents going back 50 years, U.S. patents back to 1970, and all patents published by the European Patent Office and World Intellectual Property Office since their formation in 1978.
"It has been estimated that 80% of the world's technical information is to be found only in patents," Blake said. "
Also, 85% of all patents published are not in force, meaning that information they contain is free."
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