PILOT – the government-industry forum focused on initiatives to maximise economic recovery of North Sea oil and gas – has set up a new Technology Leadership Board (TLB) to ensure offshore technology development is collaborative, directed towards priority areas, and relevant to multi-field application.
Paul Warwick, Executive Vice-President, Talisman Energy, will chair the board which comprises senior leaders from industry, academia and representatives from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), InnovateUK, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Department of Energy (DECC) and the Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF).
Warwick isTalisman’s lead Board and Executive Committee member for the Talisman Sinopec Energy UK limited joint venture.
He said: “In addition to driving UK-wide activity by establishing technology delivery groups to focus on priority areas, the remit of the Technology Leadership Board is to strengthen connections between industry and organisations such as the industry technology facilitator (ITF) and the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) – established by the Scottish Government to support collaboration between industry and Scotland’s universities and research institutes.
“In this way, the TLB will develop stronger links with the extensive community of technology innovators in the UK, which includes small to medium enterprises, world-leading universities and their centres for doctoral training.”
Oonagh Werngren, Operations Director, Oil & Gas UK, added: “In a mature basin like the continental shelf, the easiest to recover reserves have already been extracted.
“Technological innovation is therefore a key factor in helping companies to produce oil and gas from technically complex fields including those with heavy oil and very deep reservoirs, difficult shallow-water gas fields or those with high pressure, high temperature characteristics.”
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