Operators and the supply chain were brought together to focus on well plug and abandonment in the Southern North Sea (SNS).
The first ever hackathon of its kind was aimed at looking at how to uncover cost efficiencies and innovative technological solutions.
Attendees included operators as well as smaller start-ups looking to become involved in collaboration.
As oil and gas fields approach their end of life, plugging and abandoning a well is a necessary step in the majority of decommissioning campaigns to permanently prevent the migration of remaining hydrocarbons to the surface.
P&A activity in the SNS is due to peak in 2017 as over 100 wells are due to be plugged and abandoned.
Iain Lees, who was made redundant in January, has taken the opportunity to start a new business.
The former completions technical manager was joined by staff from companies including Shell, Centrica and ENI at the hackathon event at Aberdeen University.
He said:“This event is a bit different, which is good, this is about collaboration. It’s trying to get the operators and service companies to work together. The industry has always been very standoffish, operators, drilling companies and service companies operating independently.
“This has brought people together and relaxed people into passing ideas around which could make things better. It’s a real problem solving environment.”
The hackathon concept was originally developed by the computer programming industry and has since been adopted by other sectors.
Last year’s project hackathon was held by Centrica and received an inaugral OGA Maximising Economic Recovery (MER) UK award.
Seb Hearmon, head of internal communications for trading business as well as part of Centrica’s “pioneer practioners” was part of the session held in 2015.
He said:”We ran a session last year, a very similar sort of hackathon which brought the industry together and tried to tackle some of our own problems and get everyone participating together, because ultimately everyone gains from that. Being here today with the OGA gives us the opportunity to do the same again with a particular focus on the Southern North Sea, bringing industry together.
“By bringing everyone together it works because everyone is an expert in their own areas, very frequently we work in silos so working together allows the participants to see new ways to solve their own problems. It also helps the supplier of that solution to profit from it and be able to work on that project as well, so everyone benefits.
“This event is all about getting new ideas to come out and get people talking. We’ve had some fantastic sessions, getting people together to share ideas”
A further event is expected to be held on Wednesday, June 29th, in Norwich looking at closer collaboration.
Bill Cattanach, OGA head of supply chain, said: “Well P&A costs account for approximately 60% of the overall cost of decommissioning the SNS so a smarter way of working could unlock tens of billions of pounds worth of business opportunities for the local supply chain and cost savings for operators and government.
“This innovative event is a first of its kind for the OGA. We recognise many of the bright ideas and technological solutions lie within the supply chain and the hackathon acts as a platform to present these directly to influential operators and collaborate on challenges being faced by all those in the SNS basin. Lessons learned here can be applied elsewhere to establish a highly competitive and capable new decommissioning sector for the whole UKCS.”
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