Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Britain’s Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) has issued two ‘Calls for Ideas’ to the offshore market.
These involve identifying, supporting, and funding solutions that employrobotics to reduce inspection costs, and addressing development of 225 marginal discoveries in small pools across the UK continental shelf (UKCS).
Each call has an investment fund of around £1 million ($1.3 million), open to companies that demonstrate their technology concept or idea can deliver transformational results in the following areas:
- Using robotics for non-intrusive inspection of pressure vessels and tanks
- Using robotics for confined space entry to pressure vessels and tanks.
Standardizing thesubsea development life-cycle approach to support:
- Rapid engineering and delivery of a project
- Full interconnectivity between modular subsea components
- Re-use of subsea equipment from one field to another
- Interoperability with present and future systems
- Use of a range of supplier-specific subsea components.
Rebecca Allison, Asset Integrity Solution Centre Manager, said: “Our goal is to eliminate the impact of asset integrity on operational uptime by 2026. We’re looking for deployable robotic technologies for pressure vessel and tank inspections that reduce cost, improve quality, increase efficiency, and enhance safety.
“The use ofrobotics for inspection is developing rapidly across several industries and has the potential to transform the asset integrity performance of oil and gas facilities across the UKCS.”
Chris Pearson, Small Pools Solution Centre Manager, added: “Designing plug and play subsea equipment for developing marginal oil and gas fields is an opportunity recognized by all exploration and production companies. Industries such as nuclear and automotive have proven that plug and play technology can significantly reduce life-cycle costs and help create new business models.
“Simplifying our methods to support plug and play solutions could significantly lower the cost of developing UKCS fields and help maximise economic recovery of the 10-20 Bbbl of oil and gas that remain.”
Submissions, due in by July 30, will be evaluated against criteria such as value creation, sound scientific principles, time, cost, and risk reduction. Successful applicants will receive guidance, funding, and support to take their ideas toward the next stage of development.
06/08/2017
