The research and development effort associated with the U.K. North Sea gathered considerable momentum during 1990.
As well as pumping more resources into internal R&D programs, U.K. operators have been funding more broad based projects in academic institutions.
The year ended on a high note with two significant new sponsorships by Hamilton Bros. Oil & Gas Ltd., one of the oldest operators in the U.K., and Amerada Hess Ltd., a relative newcomer to North Sea oil production.
PROGRAM DETAILS
Hamilton Bros. is sponsoring a chair of offshore engineering at Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology in Aberdeen, where the school of mechanical and offshore engineering has enjoyed close links with the North Sea industry for several decades.
Despite the industry's long term association with the institute and other academic bodies, this is the first sponsorship of a chair of offshore engineering in the U.K. The appointment of its professor is to be made in the spring.
John Wils, Hamilton Bros.' general manager in Aberdeen, said at a time when the industry is facing a shortage of skills, education and training have a very important role to play in meeting the challenges of the offshore industry.
Prof. Daniel Gorman, head of the school, said the Hamilton Bros. chair will allow the organization to identify trends in the offshore industry and integrate its activities with priorities of the industry.
Amerada Hess, in partnership with the fast growing Petroleum Science and Technology Institute, Edinburgh, set up a project known as Hedera to establish an integrated, modular, basin analysis system to allow explorationists to carry out quantitative 3D analyses of sedimentary basin development and related hydrocarbon generation, migration, and entrapment.
The 2 year project, which will get under way this month and cost 900,000 ($1.72 million), will be cosponsored by Britain's Department of Energy.
Amerada Hess and the institute say the project will harness the best available science in U.K. universities. The end product will be a new basin analysis workbench based on industry standard hardware. The aim is to improve the reliability of exploration risk assessment and promote exploration success.
The work will be undertaken by a project team put together by the institute, based in the Department of Geology and Petroleum Geology at the University of Aberdeen. In addition, leading academics in the basin analysis area and an authority on advanced software design will provide technical guidance.
SOFTWARE FOR SALE
Overall objective is to sell the software to oil companies operating in the North Sea and other parts of the world. Profits from the venture will go to the institute for investment in further research projects.
The institute, financed by 37 oil companies and the Department of Energy, was established in 1989 to conduct a core research program agreed to by the industry.
Work began to take off last year with the funding of research in various U.K. universities and the first cooperation with a research establishment in the U. S.
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