Page 46: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2012)

46MTRApril 2012Norway is a clear leader in innovation and development of subsea technologies. The Bergen region, on the coun- try's west coast, has more than its fair share of subsea innovation and expertise. As operators like Statoil, Shell, and BP focus efforts on getting more oil out of mature North Sea fields, a number of innovative companies with a presence in Bergen are developing subsea technology to support these goals. Their products help increase oil recovery from existing fields, and to make it safer and eas- ier to refurbish and upgrade existing subsea installations. Companies including Aker Solutions, DOF Subsea, Framo Engineering, Advantec, Roxar and ClampOn are bringing to market new products such as sensors, boost- ing systems, regulators and intervention and installation equipment, aimed at supporting operators' ambitions of increased recovery from maturing fields. Aker SolutionsAker Solutions is seeing growing interest in its recently introduced PodEx instrument gateway solution, designed to improve oil recovery from mature oilfields. PodEx can be used to provide extra power and communications abil- ity to existing subsea installations, without a wholesaleupgrade. A wide range of new, innovative sensors and detection equipment is now being deployed in mature oil and gas fields, to better monitor well activity and regulate production. These add-ons require significantly more electrical power than older equipment, plus increased communications bandwidth to transmit subsea data totopside data acquisition systems ? all made more complex by the fact that the equipment is operating in a subsea environment. Full-scale upgrades or replacements of subsea systems are both expensive and time-consuming. PodEx provides a solution when a full- scale upgrade is either impossibleor too expensive. The module integrates directly with existing electrical and communications systems, and iscompatible with controls systems from all manufacturers. It allows operators to integrate new instrumentation Subsea and Offhore Technologies Bergen Bound ... Part II By Clare McIntyreEarlier this year Marine Technology Reporter sent Clare McIntyre on a mission to explore the subsea industry cluster of Bergen, Norway, a report which appears in the January/February 2012 edition. Following on that report, in conjunction with the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, MTR provides more in-depth technology reports from the region. The electronic pod of Aker Solutions PodEx system undergoing temperature testing.