OGTC backing for small pools initiative
OGTC backing for small pools initiative
We are pleased to announce that Flexlife has received backing from the Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) for a ‘plug and play’ project to unlock small pools in the UKCS.
‘Plug and play’ concepts involve equipment which connects together with a higher degree of operability and simplicity. Adopting the concept in the UKCS could significantly reduce the life-cycle costs of small pools. Flexlife’s ‘plug and play’ concept was one of four initiatives selected from 29 submitted as part of the OGTC’s first Small Pools Call for Ideas.
Together with partners from Proserv, Infinity, DeepOcean and Axis, Flexlife’s engineers have developed a standardised tie-back bundle with an integrated pipeline, umbilical and subsea manifold which can be reused between field developments. This bundle could significantly simplify the design and manufacture of small pool field developments, bringing them online quicker and reducing costs.
Garry Millard, CEO of Flexlife, said: “Working with our partners and the OGTC to develop the plug and play concept is a great privilege. Developing small pools will be significant to the life extension of the current export subsea infrastructure, while providing a cost effective solution to oil an gas operators for enhanced recovery.”
‘Plug and play’ is a key theme of the OGTC’s ‘Tie-back of the Future’ initiative, which aims to half the cost and time required to develop small pools. Wood Mackenzie identified that the initiative would make an additional 400 million barrels economic in the UKCS.
Chris Pearson, Small Pools Solution Centre Manager at the OGTC, said: “The positive response to our first Small Pools Call for Ideas has generated four highly innovative and diverse projects, delivering collaborative solutions with industry and academia. With upwards of $175bn of value in UKCS small pools, we are confident that we have identified ideas to transform the subsea development life-cycle approach and lower costs to unlock these fields.”