OGTC Issues First ‘Call for Ideas’
Monday 1 May 2017
Aberdeen’s new Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) has launched its first “call for ideas” as it looks to help develop new technology to cut the cost of plugging and abandoning offshore wells, with £1 million ($1.29 million) funding being made available.
Malcolm Banks, well construction solution centre manager at the OGTC said reducing the costs of abandoning wells, as well as drilling and maintaining them, is a key priority for the centre.
He said: “Over the next decade, 1400 wells are forecast to be abandoned on the UKCS, at a cost of about £7 billion, creating a significant burden for the industry and UK taxpayers.
“A large proportion of these costs are driven by the need for drilling rig-based activities. Therefore, a significant opportunity exists to significantly reduce well plug and abandonment costs, and thus total decommissioning costs, through ‘rigless’ methodologies.”
The centre, which opened in February with £180 million of UK and Scottish government funding, said the P&A initiative will follow three specific themes - modelling the probability of hydrocarbon flow to surface, verification of permanent barriers and new and alternative barriers.
Submissions will be welcomed from 1 May to 11 June through OGTC’s website www.theogtc.com, OGTC said.