ITF, the industry technology facilitator for the global oil and gas industry, is to launch a cluster group for the US focusing solely on solving major technology challenges which are hampering exploration and production.
ITF member Shell has agreed to host the first event at its Houston offices as ITF urges other operators to get behind the initiative that will bring companies together to share the risks and costs of bringing new technology to market in North America.
Aberdeen-based ITF wants to secure more than £9million from the region by 2015 for groundbreaking solutions to problem areas such as seismic imaging and unconventional reservoirs.
The cluster group will bring operator and service companies together to identify common technology challenges within the region and then seek commitment on collaborating to overcome them.
Neil Poxon, managing director of ITF, explained: “We want operators with interests in the US to get behind collaboration through this dedicated cluster group. We are confident that it will speed up the development of technologies that are sorely needed to support the capture of harder-to-reach reserves.
“The ITF model has been proven around the world and this targeted approach to technology development will benefit the industry as a whole as well as academia and companies with the brightest ideas.”