UK: ITF Members Offer Funds to Drilling and Subsea Technology Developers

ITF is calling on technology developers to come forward with innovative solutions to drilling, well intervention and subsea challenges, with the potential for successful proposals to receive up to 100% funding.

Submission deadlines are fast approaching for three global calls for proposals, following identification of key priorities at a series of Technology Challenge Workshops (TCWs) by ITF members earlier this year.

The calls for drilling and well intervention solutions follows on from two workshops held in Amsterdam earlier this year, where a number of operators and service companies identified the shared challenges where they would like to see innovative technologies developed.

The call for proposals for subsea technologies was the result of Technology Challenge Workshops which took place in London and Perth, Australia, where ITF has also recently established a new office.

Neil Poxon, Managing Director of ITF said: “Finding new and innovative ways of drilling is a top priority of research and development for oil and gas operators around the world. Improving efficiencies in this area is crucial for the industry as it faces increasingly testing frontiers of exploration.

“Similarly, with sustained high oil prices, more marginal wells are proving to be economically viable so novel technologies are required to increase oil recovery through various forms of intervention.”

The drilling call is an open invitation for organisations to submit high quality proposals for research, development and/or field trials of potential solutions to deal with issues faced in the sector.

The main problems to be addressed are:

-Improved well control

-Improved blowout response

-Formation support while drilling

-Zonal isolation of reservoir sections

-Improved information recovery from the drillstring while drilling

-Improved Pressure and Temperature (PT) sensors for High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) wells and heavy oil

Likewise, the well intervention call has been issued to attract proposals which could lead to technology solutions for the challenges identified by ITF members.

Specific areas of focus include:

-Pressure control equipment

-In-line monitoring for: gas leaks, hydrates, system pressure loss

-Improved tree design

-Annulus intervention technologies

Other technology solutions which are identified in the call include: a downhole camera that can ‘see’ in any wellbore fluid environment, improved cased hole logging tools, a sand control solution which can be retrofitted, and improved intervention planning tools.

Specific areas of interest highlighted for the subsea call incorporate:

-Subsea power

-Flow assurance

-Subsea separation

-Temperature management

-Pipeline integrity management / cost reduction

-Low cost intervention

-Specific Australian regional challenges

Mr Poxon added: “I would urge interested companies developing new subsea technologies to get in touch as our members are currently very interested in funding new projects in this field. We work right across the oil and gas spectrum from subsurface to production, drilling and wells, and are constantly on the search for new technologies that address our members’ priorities. Our door is always open to novel ideas.”

By submitting their proposals to ITF, technology developers have the opportunity for their ideas to be reviewed by major oil and gas players and could also secure funding to realise their novel technologies, whilst retaining full intellectual property rights.

The deadlines for the well intervention and subsea technologies proposals are 13 October 2011, and 4 November 2011 for proposals in response to the drilling call.

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Source: ITF, October 14 , 2011