THE organisation formed to help oil and gas firms capitalise on the expertise held in universities in the wake of the crude price plunge has launched a drive to help develop new offshore drilling technologies.

Read more: North Sea oil industry set for £850m boost from innovation drive

The Oil and Gas Innovation Centre is providing £640,000 backing for seven projects that will be completed by Aberdeen university’s Centre for Applied Dynamics Research team with businesses.

These will focus on the challenges firms face in areas such as subsea data collection and drilling in layers of hard rock. OGIC has provided £6 million support in total for 106 projects.