Technology, Research & Development

The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) is the UK oil and gas industry’s main vehicle for technology development.

Much of the UK’s oil and gas expertise is R&D-led. The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) is the UK oil and gas industry’s main vehicle for technology development. ITF is a not-for-profit organisation owned by 22 major international operators and service companies. The organisation has successfully facilitated the launch of 137 joint industry projects addressing issues like seismic resolution, complex reservoirs, cost effective drilling and intervention, subsea engineering, maximising production, integrity management and environmental performance.

UK universities and many independent institutions are involved in significant R&D programmes, with applied expertise upstream and downstream in reservoir modelling, petrophysics, geomechanics, well test analysis, corrosion measurement, multiphase flow, hydrodynamics, subsea systems, process and environmental engineering. The major UK operators, BP, Shell and BG have international R&D programmes spread around the world receiving combined expenditure of more than $1 billion per year. 
 
UK centres of excellence are devoted to the research of new subsea technology, materials engineering and asset management. Developing tools for intelligent completions, HP/HT optimisation, fluid and sand management, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), mini-remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and floating production systems offshore (FPSO) studies. Innovative solutions include the use of low-cost lasers to address hydrocarbon gas leaks; tools for conducting wireline operations in highly deviated wells; flammable gas sensors; a counter-flow pig; precise subsidence monitoring using GPS; and new wet-welding techniques.
 
Finding new, cleaner and greener ways of utilising hydrocarbons is also an objective of the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI). This public-private partnership brings together some of the world’s biggest companies and is taking a leading role in the development of new energy technologies. The UK government will match funding from partner companies to create a $2 billion research fund over 10 years. Private sector partners currently include Shell, BP, E.ON,EdF, Rolls-Royce and Caterpillar.
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Going with the flow

Weatherford International Ltd designs and manufactures technology applications used in the oil and gas industry. The company is now benefiting from a joint venture contract with Russian oil equipment company, Kosmos-Neft-Gas
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