Floating wind turbine technology is well placed to help oil and gas operators reduce the cost of recovery from reservoirs using water injection, according to an industry expert.
A new joint industry project - Win Win - being led by DNV GL, has brought together oil majors including ExxonMobil, ENI, Statoil, Nexen and VNG to share knowledge and pursue water injection in subsea reservoirs delivered by wind-power rather than traditional gas turbines.
The technology is seen as being cost-efficient, able to reduce an oil platform's carbon footprint and offers opportunities for one turbine to be used on multiple wells.
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority (PSA) has given permission to ConocoPhillips for it to employ the jack-up drilling rig Maersk Innovator to drill eight subsea water injection wells on the Ekofisk field in the Norwegian part of the North Sea.
