Industry and ONE prioritise development of Oil & Gas Technology Centre

The OGTC will have a key role to play in maximising economic recovery from the UKCS, anchoring the supply chain in the region for the longer term, enhancing exports by helping develop new technology in the supply chain, and retaining high value jobs.

The OGTC will be industry led and supported by the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University, the Oil & Gas Authority (OGA), Oil & Gas UK (OGUK), the Technology Leadership Board (TLB), Scottish Enterprise and ONE.

One of the first priorities for the OGTC is to establish managed Solution Centres. These will be led by a dedicated team, bring together knowledge and expertise form across industry and focus on delivering practical solutions for immediate challenges such as managing asset integrity, reducing the cost of drilling wells and finding cost effective ways of developing smaller and more marginal offshore fields.

Over time, OGTC will establish and enhance world-class research facilities, including new test facilities, and support new technology and processes being brought to market faster.

ONE’s oil and gas sector board is now supporting the development of the detailed business case for OGTC, which will enable the drawing down of CRD funds. An OGTC Board will be in place by the end of April and the final business case for OGTC will be submitted by early summer. ONE is funding this development stage of the project with partners.

Subject to CRD funding being secured by summer 2016, the expectation is that the first managed Solution Centres will be created this year, with initial delivery and output expected from 2017 onwards.

Sir Ian Wood, chair of ONE’s main Economic Leadership Board and of its Oil and Gas Sector Board, said: “The OGTC is a transformational project which will make the most of the North Sea maximising recovery opportunity and support technology development in the supply chain, which will grow exports and sustain high value jobs in the North East of Scotland and UK.

“The project also has a catalytic role to play in the longer term transitioning of the North East of Scotland from a centre of operational excellence to a global hub for oil and gas innovation, which will help anchor more of the supply chain in the region.

“The OGTC will be instrumental in realising the vision for our region to be one of the top three centres globally for oil and gas technology development and deployment. Reflecting the priorities already identified by industry via the Technology Leadership Board, OGTC will have a particular focus on subsea production, mature basin asset management, maximising economic recovery and ensuring decommissioning excellence.

“OGTC will draw upon and retain a high value talent pool with best in class expertise in energy and leverage collaboration between the industry and the academic community to ensure that our two universities deliver world-leading energy related research, development and commercialisation activities.

“With support from all the stakeholders and with development funding from ONE and Scottish Enterprise, we could begin to see early outputs from the Solution Centres within the next 12 months, which is a very exciting prospect,” said Sir Ian.

Maggie McGinlay, senior director of energy at Scottish Enterprise, said: “Scotland is world renowned for both oil and gas and innovation and this new Oil and Gas Technology Centre will help maintain our competitive edge at a time when the industry is transforming for the future. We are pleased to be supporting the OGTC which will be the first of many exciting new developments led by ONE and will reinforce the potential of a truly collaborative private sector-led economic partnership.”