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SUBSEA

There’s not a rush to develop small pools, yet, however. It takes time to build the technol- ogy and the environment, says

Blake, who worked on Deepstar 25 years ago. “At the time, there wasn’t re- ally any deepwater development in the US Gulf of Mexico. Twenty- ? ve years later there is stacks of it.

Deepstar was partly accountable for that,” he says.

It wasn’t so much about the technology that ? nally made deepwater viable, and the same is true of small pools, Blake adds, al- though he says that time is not on their side, with infrastructure now their side, with infrastructure now starting to be removed. “You will see up-take of these technologies, in ? ve years’ time. The big thing

NSRI did was start the debate,” he says. NSRI did was start the debate,” he says.

Some of ’s past coverage on NSRI initiatives. ’s past coverage on NSRI initiatives. OE

It showed that the technology is pos- sible, the commercial side, the mindset, needs to catch up.

renewables and subsea mining, sup- operators not wanting to test technolo-

Subsea springboard gies on live wells. ported by events, and helping to build

NSRI has been busy in other areas, how- the Matchmaker database. Last year, “That’s one of the big barriers, to get in ? eld and getting technology wet,” ever. Early on, it launched Developer Days another intern took over and is focusing

Drummond says. Creating a subsea (now Technology Springboard), which on wave and tidal energy opportunities. center of excellence would be the ulti- put technology devel- mate end goal, Blake says, even if it did opers in front of buyers “You will see up-take of these mean that the work of the NSRI was (access to which many ? nd challenging), and complete. technologies, in five years’ time. its Matchmaker tool Meanwhile, the next three years, – an online “dating” under a new project manager, is set to

The big thing NSRI did was start the service – to connect focus more on diversi? cation; looking debate.” technology ? rms with at other sectors the NSRI has not tapped universities and test fully into yet, as well as areas within — Peter Blake centers with exper- oil and gas that haven’t been looked at tise relevant to their yet, such as decommissioning. Changes technology. Other events, including days high- have already been made to the board to

Through these events, technology lighting expert skills available in re? ect these wider interests. The NSRI developers like Aberdeenshire-based academia, in materials and subsea also hopes to add more academic input

Exnics have been given a foot in the inspection, as well as test facilities and from outside Scotland and to help map door. Since presenting at the ? rst funding routes, have also been held. more global opportunities for the supply

The dream, however, is to create

Developer Day, Exnics, for example, got chain. a subsea center of excellence, which an offshore trial of its hot rings technol- fully links the world leading UK ogy with EnQuest on the Scolty-Crathes

FURTHER READING industry, with academia, quali? cation subsea tieback. We’ve been following

Cutting the Umbilical and testing and deployment oppor-

Exnics progress in OE this year (OE: www.oedigital.com/ tunities across the subsea sector. It

November 2017). Another ? rm, EC-OG, pipelines/maintenance/ would comprise an underwater test has been working with Shell on its sub- item/10929-cutting-the- center, a technology incubator and a sea power hub concept. umbilical digital virtual community. Scottish

Mapping renewables

Enterprise has been involved in assess-

Tanked up

Meanwhile, with the help of two in- ing the testing and development center www.oedigital.com/ terns, seconded from engineering group potential, which could involve build- production/fpso/

Wood, work also got underway mapping ing a dummy offshore asset, which item/13135-tanked-up out the subsea challenges in offshore could be used for testing, to get around oedigital.com

January 2018 | OE 33 032_OE0118_Subsea2_NSRI.indd 33 12/27/17 7:37 PM