An Aberdeen company has become the first to tap a joint industry and Scottish government-backed fund to support research and development projects.
Raptor Oil, a pre-revenue start-up company specialising in wellbore data technology, has amassed a pot worth £1.5million to fund a research and development (R&D) project to help boost performance in the oil and gas sector.
The company has so far received backing from ConoccoPhillips and Statoil, with the Norwegian firm having backed Raptor with £850,000 so far.
The project, which will test and develop the firm’s wireless telemetry technology, is the first to receive funding through the new Seek & Solve innovation funding programme launched in June 2014 with the Norwegian firm’s investment arm, Statoil Technology Invest.
Gordon Cowie, chief executive of Raptor Oil said: “Following two successful proof of concept phases we aim to move into the industrial R&D phase by replicating real life conditions at our purpose built test site in Aberdeen to research and refine our technology.
“We believe this is a key step in advancing our potentially ground breaking technology to a technology with end user validation and test data evidence derived from simulated and real well environments.”
Richard Erskine, head of Statoil Technology Invest, said: “Statoil believes wireless telemetry has the potential to revolutionise in-well communication and we are delighted to be cooperating with Scottish Enterprise in funding this technology development.
“Hopefully Raptor is only the first of many such funding opportunities we will cooperate on as we continue to hunt for good ideas across Scotland.”
Energy Minister Fergus Ewing said:“Raptor Oil received £400,000 grant funding from Scottish Enterprise which, together with the £1.1 million of funding from the private sector will support this 17 month project aimed at significantly improving the performance and reliability of existing oil and gas sensory systems.
“This new funding will enable the company to refine and test its product design and performance by replicating real life conditions.
Scottish Enterprise chief executive, Lena Wilson, said: “We are encouraging many more companies, like Raptor Oil, to deliver projects of this nature which result not just in commercial success for each organisation but help increase exports and Scotland’s overall competitiveness.”
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