Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – The Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) has committed to invest more than £300,000 ($426,000) in three new projects that could improve the efficiency of offshore oil and gas operations.
Blue Gentoo will collaborate with the University of Aberdeen to develop an Intelligent Hydrate Tool. This will automatically control MonoEthylene Glycol (MEG) injection by monitoring hydrocarbon parameters – calculating both the amount of MEG required and any subsequent injection adjustments in real time – without the need for routine human intervention.
According to OGIC, the tool will ‘learn’ effective human and computer-devised injection strategies for hydrate prevention, re-applying them where appropriate and providing a detailed justification of the adopted strategy.
The development, which combines AI technology, proven software and engineering techniques, should lead to enhanced oil recovery, reduced production risks, with associated environmental benefits.
Under a second program Robert Gordon University will work with Cambridge-based CorrosionRADAR to advance the latter’s remote monitoring and analytics system.
This is designed to monitor corrosion in isolation using permanently mounted sensors to locate problematic areas within complex pipeline networks.
The company will also work with University of Strathclyde on its short- and long-term R&D strategy, and will later seek to partner to undertake field trials and to take on early adoption of the technology.
The system should allow operators to move from reactive inspections to a more targeted, informed and condition-based approach, said to minimize the risk of failure and costs.
Finally, Phoenix RDS will work with Heriot-Watt University to develop a flow control device (FCD) designed for injection.
The goals are to identify ways of optimizing the FCD so that the required pressure drop during injection is achieved with minimal degradation of the fluid’s properties, and to conduct a field trial using scaled models to confirm the validity of the design.
03/26/2018
