Opportunity North East (ONE) will work with oil and gas industry leaders to establish Aberdeen as a global centre for offshore technology and development.
The moves comes after funding was announced by the UK and Scottish governments through the Aberdeen City Region Deal.
It will enable the industry to establish a new Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) to support the oil and gas industry internationally.
Last month, Prime Minster David Cameron revealed more money could be on its way to Aberdeen after it was revealed the City Deal could be worth £1.2billlion to the area.
The OGTC will have a key role to play in maximising economic recovery from the UKCS, anchoring the supply chain in the region for the longer term, enhancing exports by helping develop new technology in the supply chain, and retaining high value jobs.
The OGTC will be industry led and supported by the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University, the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), Oil & Gas UK (OGUK), the Technology Leadership Board (TLB), Scottish Enterprise and ONE.
Sir Ian Wood, chair of ONE’s main Economic Leadership Board and of its Oil and Gas Sector Board, said: “The OGTC is a transformational project which will make the most of the North Sea maximising recovery opportunity and support technology development in the supply chain, which will grow exports and sustain high value jobs in the North East of Scotland and UK.
“The project also has a catalytic role to play in the longer term transitioning of the North East of Scotland from a centre of operational excellence to a global hub for oil and gas innovation, which will help anchor more of the supply chain in the region.
“The OGTC will be instrumental in realising the vision for our region to be one of the top three centres globally for oil and gas technology development and deployment. Reflecting the priorities already identified by industry via the Technology Leadership Board, OGTC will have a particular focus on subsea production, mature basin asset management, maximising economic recovery and ensuring decommissioning excellence.
“OGTC will draw upon and retain a high value talent pool with best in class expertise in energy and leverage collaboration between the industry and the academic community to ensure that our two universities deliver world-leading energy related research, development and commercialisation activities.
“With support from all the stakeholders and with development funding from ONE and Scottish Enterprise, we could begin to see early outputs from the Solution Centres within the next 12 months, which is a very exciting prospect.”
One of the first priorities for the OGTC will be to establish managed Solution Centres.
This will include a dedicated team which can bring together knowledge and expertise from across industry and focus on delivering solutions for immediate challenges such as managing asset integrity.
The long-term plan is for the OGTC to establish facilities which which include for testing and to help support new technology and processes being brought to market faster.
ONE’s oil and gas sector board is now supporting the development of the detailed business case for OGTC, which will enable the drawing down of CRD funds. An OGTC Board will be in place by the end of April and the final business case for OGTC will be submitted by early summer. ONE is funding this development stage of the project with partners.
Subject to the City Region Deal funding being secured by this summer, the expectation is that the first managed Solution Centres will be created this year, with initial delivery and output expected from 2017 onwards.
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