Technology centre launches £2m fund for digital and decommissioning ideas 

Up to £2m is available from Scotland’s Oil & Gas Technology Centre’s in its latest two ‘calls for ideas’ on digital transformation and decommissioning launched today.

The centre is looking for digital analytics approaches, such as machine learning, that can “rapidly organise, distil, screen and assess data from oil and gas wells”. Often held in different formats and of variable quality, the data could lead to new discoveries, help extend field life and maximise economic recovery.

Its is also looking for “integrated, modular, environmentally friendly and cost-effective life support solutions, that create flexibility in how and when facilities are decommissioned”. Each Call has up to £1 million to invest in a portfolio of projects that can unlock the full potential of the UK North Sea.

The deadlines for submissions are 26 January and 16 February, respectively (more information here and here).

Steve Roberts, digital transformation solution centre advisor, said: “We believe that sophisticated analytics techniques, such as machine learning, could help identify remaining oil and gas accumulations and consequently impact the extent of life of nearby fields and maximise economic recovery in an area.

“There are significant volumes of industry data collected during oil and gas exploration and production, but they are often held in different formats and are of variable age and quality. A digital solution could extract key information from these difficult to analyse data sets and the results could be a key input to end of field life and area plan decisions.

“We are working closely with, and are supported by, the Oil and Gas Authority, Common Data Access and Norwegian Petroleum Directorate to make suitable data sets available for ideas to be tested.”

Susi Wiseman, Decommissioning Solution Centre Project Manager, added: “Companies in the oil and gas industry have identified recurring difficulties with life support systems in recent and current decommissioning programmes resulting in low flexibility, lost time, cost overruns and inconvenience to offshore teams. Alternative life support systems could help to significantly reduce the cost of decommissioning, and improve efficiency and productivity.”