The industry must foster a new kind of competitive spirit amid this latest down cycle, according to Statoil.
Ola Gussias, the firm’s technology manager, told Energy Voice at this year’s Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) the industry must focus on the greater good.
He said shedding historic rivalries and adopting a more unified hunger for better technology to boost the industry’s abilities is what the sector should now be competitive about.
The technology expert referenced a recent collaboration with Lundin, ENI, Innovation Norway and the Research Council of Norway to develop a piece of technology aimed improving stimulation techniques without the use of hydraulic fracturing as an example of what can be achieved.
The partners worked in partnership with Fishbones to develop the Dreamliner Multilateral Stimulation Technology (MST).
Speaking of the downturn, Gussias said: “ It’s a great opportunity to stick our heads together. This is the time to do it.
“The more ideas we can have around the table the better.
“This about sharing the risks and costs and coming up with new ideas. We all have our own business strategies but this technology will help us all.”
Dreamliner, which scooped the OTC Spotlight on New Technology Award, increased productivity and injectivity by creating an array of small diameter laterals into the reservoir.
Each Dreamliner sub is run in hole with a set of three drill bits attached to hollow needles protected inside of a casing string.
The development can drill as many as 300 laterals, dramatically cutting costs.
Statoil plans to deploy the technology in the Norwegian Sea later this year. A total of 150 Dreamliner laters will be drilled in a tight sandstone formation to increase production rates.
It’s hoped the effort will unlock previously untapped and hard to reach resource.
Gussias added: “The perfect outcome of this technology would be its potential to open up these difficult regions. The hope is that we would be able to do that early on, so this technology my be a door opener for us.”