Energy Voice and Granite PR have held their first co-branded Gateway event in Abu Dhabi, with a pre-conference breakfast involving ADNOC, where the importance of innovation and co-operation was high on the menu.
“New ideas are most welcome”, ADNOC’s vice president of R&D Khadija Al Daghar told attendees at the Gateway event. “This breakfast has been a great opportunity to showcase what we’re looking for.”
“Our strategy is one of global growth,” Granite PR’s founder and managing director Brett Jackson. “It’s looking at how we, as Scotland, can play a part in ADNOC achieve its 2030 target. Scotland and the UK have a lot to offer in helping increase production and the challenge is how to work effectively in new markets. We were delighted with the interest in this pre-ADIPEC breakfast.”
ADNOC has substantial expansion plans and has expressed interest in partnering with companies around the world in support of these. Oil production is to reach 5 million barrels per day, from around 3mn bpd at present, in addition to developing sour gas and unconventional resources.
“We want to work with medium and small companies,” ADNOC’s vice president said. “ADNOC is a technology leader and there’s a clear message from the leadership about the importance of innovation.”
The state-owned Abu Dhabi company is interested in technology in all stages, from ideas that need further investment to options that are already built. The only requirement is that they meet the needs of ADNOC’s challenges.
“It is not just about reaching deployment and production, once we are working with a company it is for a minimum of five years,” Al Daghar said. Areas for potential co-operation include a shift to more environmentally friendly techniques and products, such as non-metallic materials. ADNOC was involved in the launch of the Non-metallic Innovation Centre (NIC) in the UK, in September, with Saudi Aramco.
“Smart materials provide opportunities for longer-life pipelines and facilities,” the ADNOC official continued. “We want more efficient, more safe, more environmentally friendly, more economical” technologies, she said.
Also speaking at the Gateway event was Baker Hughes’ chief technology officer John Kerr, who noted the importance of innovation that transcends technology. “There’s commercial innovation, there’s financial innovation, it can all play a part, particularly in making uneconomical fields economical.”
The shift to more challenging fields is an opportunity for companies with North Sea experience, Oil and Gas UK’s market intelligence manager Ross Dornan said. “Late-life challenges, high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) and other marginal economic projects require collaboration and technology.”
Centrifuges Un-limited’s Barry Marshall made the case for operators to move beyond a solely price-based evaluation of technologies. “Sometimes paying a little more makes economic sense,” he said, with the price squeeze of the last five years having stifled innovation.
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