Badley Geoscience has announced OCTek, a joint venture R&D project with Prof. Nick Kusznir of Liverpool University’s Geodynamics Research Group. OCTek uses gravity inversion to produce maps of crustal thickness at rifted continental margins and their ocean-continent transitions. Maps will be available in their present-day positions as well as at the time of breakup, immediately prior to ocean-basin formation. OCTek should benefit new ventures’ exploration strategy in deepwater areas and in petroleum systems modeling. More on OCTek from badleys.co.uk.
Christian Michelsen Research, Statoil and the University of Bergen are teaming on ‘GeoIllustrator,’ a new software package for geological data concept analysis. GeoIllustrator will leverage ‘state of the art’ computer graphics and interaction hardware such as Watcom’s ‘Cintiq’ sketch-based gestural interaction device, to ‘help understand surface and subsurface geology.’ The project is funded by Statoil and the Norwegian Research Council. More from links/1002_8.
BP, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Manchester are to team on oilfield corrosion R&D in an extension of BP’s ‘Inherently Reliable Facilities’ (IRF) program. The major research collaboration is endowed with an initial $2 million investment and BP intends to follow on with a similar amount for up to a further four years. The R&D program includes corrosion and corrosion-fatigue modeling, environmental cracking, novel coatings and new monitoring technology. Corrosion management is ‘crucial to achieving safe, reliable and efficient operation of processing facilities and infrastructure.’
Simon Webster, BP’s VP for the IRF program said, ‘Corrosion control, mitigation, and monitoring are significant concerns in our industry. The success of the IRF program depends on access to specialized materials and corrosion expertise and laboratory facilities.’
BP is also funding the Corrosion and Reliability Engineering initiative at The University of Akron, USA with a one-off, $500,000 grant. BP’s 20-strong IRF team is targeting ‘a billion incremental barrels of non-proven reserves’ by extending production facilities’ lifespan. More from links/1002_5.
The Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and Austria’s University of Leoben are teaming on an ‘Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems’ R&D initiative, a component of the Environmentally Friendly Drilling (EFD) program. Program manager, HARC senior scientist Rich Haut said, ‘Opportunities for innovation here at home and abroad will broaden as operators and regulators learn about each others’ programs and technologies. Working with European countries will leverage our resources to improve environmental performance.’ EFD- EU chapter manager Gerhard Thonhauser (UoL) added that ‘European operations can learn about technologies used in environmentally sensitive areas, such as hydraulic fracturing techniques.’ More from efdsystems.org.
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