The U.S. Department of Energy is providing seed money for a unique oil industry organization that will serve as a clearinghouse to disseminate drilling and production technology.
The Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (PTTC) was established after a 1990 Oil and Gas Compact Commission study and a 1991 review by the Independent Petroleum Association of America of DOE's oil and gas research programs found a wide gap in technology transfer.
With strong DOE support, IPAA set up PTTC as a separate, tax exempt organization (OGJ, Nov. 14, p. 72).
It launched operations Nov. I and plans to spend $30 million during its first 5 years, with $17 million (58%) coming from DOE and the balance from the Gas Research Institute, producing states, and petroleum companies.
After 5 years, PTTC is to be close to self-sustaining through user fees and industry contributions.
COMMUNICATIONS GOALS
Deborah Rowell, executive director, said PTTC mainly will be a technology clearinghouse for the 8,000 U.S. independent producers, "but you would be surprised how many majors are getting involved."
She said, "There is a gap between the operator in the field and the technology providers. Our goal is to close it."
The organization will link producers with research data at GRI, DOE, and private companies. Communications will be two way: Researchers will be able to provide operators the latest technology, and producers will be able to express their needs and concerns to researchers.
DOE will use PTTC as its main mechanism to disseminate its oil and gas research program data to producers.
But data also will come from other sources, including DOE national laboratories, GRI, service companies, and universities. PTTC will not be directly involved in R&D efforts.
Rowell said PTTC is inundated with offers of research data.
She said some states already ad technology transfer programs - particularly Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Illinois, but they were not communicating with one another.
REGIONAL FOCUS
Although PTTC has four person staff in Washington, D.C., it will be a decentralized organization with a backbone of 10 regional centers.
Each of the regions will have a resource center, usually at a university, that will give operators access to a library, technical and referral assistance, and computer workstations with data covering project histories, field and reservoir data, and analytical software.
At the resource centers, operators will be able to test ideas, obtain detailed help, and get referrals tailored to specific needs.
All of the resource centers will be linked with an electronic information system using the Internet.
In its first year, PTTC will open six regional centers, at Tuscaloosa, Ala., Lawrence, Kan., Norman, Okla., Champaign, Ill., Austin, Tex., and Socorro, N.M.
Each of the ultimate 10 centers will have its own organization and producer advisory group and will focus on the needs of producers in its region.
Each will conduct problem identification workshops to list operators' most common problems in specific producing regions, type of reservoirs, and environments. Each also will conduct focused technology workshops to provide information and solutions to problems identified in the earlier workshops.
In all, 150 workshops and seminars are planned for the first 5 years.
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