Lockheed Martin has been commissioned to carry out an asset integrity study to identify new ways to maximise oil and gas recovery from UK waters.
The study by the US aerospace, defence and security giant will examine how to improve the management of corrosion under insulation which could unlock £1 billion of revenue in the North Sea through improved production efficiency and cost savings.
The main aim of the project is to make the inspection and maintenance of ageing offshore facilities safer, quicker, easier and cheaper to carry out and this, it is hoped, will translate into less production downtime.
The study will map out the existing technologies and companies for maintenance and inspection and identify relevant technologies and processes that are new or not used offshore. This phase of the project will report back in February 2016.
Alec Harley of Lockheed Martin said: “Partnering with the oil and gas industry to take on such an ambitious goal of reducing costs to the industry by £1 billion is a challenge Lockheed Martin is proud to tackle.
“Ideas from a number of research and academic institutions are demonstrating some interesting and thought provoking concepts that are encouraging in their potential application to helping the oil and gas industry solve this very real challenge of increasing production efficiency.”
The project is the result of a partnership between the Technology Leadership Board, Oil & Gas UK, Oil & Gas Authority, Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) and Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) and is being led by Total and Amec Foster Wheeler.
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