A North Sea operator is to look to the stars in a bid to extract frontier oil after striking a research deal with the US space administration Nasa.
Norwegian firm Statoil will link up with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to look at how new technology can be used across both the space and oil and gas industries.
The laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology, carries out research into new systems for exploring space – technology which could be transferred to the difficult environmental conditions of frontier oil exploration.
“Searching for oil and gas resources has become so advanced technically over the past decade that new solutions and ideas are needed,” said Statoil research vice president Lars Høier.
“To Statoil this is a significant opportunity to take technologies developed by NASA and JPL for the harsh and challenging environments of space and apply them to the equally demanding environments of oil and gas production.”
The five year arrangement will look at areas such as tool design, communications, supercomputer development and robotics – a field in which the JPL team has excelled in the past, developing robots for space exploration.
Statoil’s research work in exploring and developing in harsh conditions will also be used by Nasa in future development of the space programme.
“This agreement is the latest example of how NASA and JPL technologies can benefit us here on Earth,” said JPL director Charles Elachi.
“It’s also an example of how collaborations with other industries can be beneficial to space exploration.”
Nasa has made a number of moves to link up with the oil and gas industry, including a similar deal with Chevron two years ago.
Its pool used for zero-gravity training of astronauts is also used by Petrofac to train offshore workers, while earlier this year it announced a link-up with Deloitte to provide safety advice for oil and gas companies in difficult conditions.
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