A £1million investment has been revealed by the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) in four projects to help unlock the 3.4billion barrels of oil and gas in “small pools” in the North Sea.
The technology is based on the “plug and play” concept from the space and computing industries where equipment is designed to be operated and reused simply and efficiently.
The OGTC says adopting the concept in the North Sea could significantly reduce costs of developing small pools of oil and gas resources.
It comes following a “call for ideas” on the subject from the OGTC last year, with the four being chosen from 29 applicants.
Aberdeen energy service firm Flexlife is behind one of the projects, developing tie-back technology to connect wells to existing infrastructure which will be reused for different field developments.
The Robert Gordon University is working alongside Alliance Manchester Business School to identify any barriers to adopting a plug and play approach in the energy industry.
It will examine aspects including the sector’s culture and behaviour in a bid to help foster more collaboration.
Westhill-based Marine Direct Consultants is meanwhile working on a system to recover and reuse flowlines which will help lower manufacturing costs and installation time required.
Edinburgh University and Glasgow Caledonian University are working on a modular power network to “transform” how electricity is delivered subsea.
Chris Pearson, Small Pools Solution Centre manager, said: “The positive response to our first Small Pools Call for Ideas has generated four very innovative and diverse projects, delivering collaborative solutions with industry and academia.
“With upwards of $175bn of value in UKCS small pools, we are confident that we have identified ideas that can help transform the subsea development life-cycle approach and lower costs to unlock these fields.”
Garry Millard, CEO of Flexlife, said: “We’re pleased to be working with our partners and the Oil & Gas Technology Centre to develop the plug and play concept.
“Developing small pools is vital to the life extension of current subsea infrastructure, while providing a cost-effective solution to the oil and gas operators for enhanced recovery.”
The OGTC will now be launching another call for ideas at the end of the month, focussing on smart subsea communications for developing small pools.
It is looking for solutions to “revolutionise” the field, including sensors, software and wireless communications.