OTM News

BASICS JIP
May 2008: OTM with the support of Society of Underwater Technologies (SUT) and Umbilical Manufacturers Federation (UMF) kicked off the BASICS JIP (Blockage Avoidance in Subsea Injection and Control Systems) – www.basics-jip.com in late 2006  with the aim of generating two outputs: 1/ a Recommended Practice (RP) document on how to avoid blockages in the subsea system, and 2/ a Design Verification (DV) document specifically aimed at the qualification of production chemicals, but also touching on control fluids. There are 16 signed up participants representing operators, equipment manufacturers, fluid suppliers, and engineering houses. The RP document now covers recommendations from the FEED stage through to decommissioning of a field. It covers all aspects of fluid injection and control, covering subjects as diverse as: fluid design, fluid cleanliness, system design (topside, subsea and submudline and integration thereof), operational handling/protocols, bunkering, materials of construction, fluid change-out, seawater ingress and potential interventions. The aim of the DV document is to ensure that the fluids are qualified for their required design conditions and covers subjects such as: fluid stability (temperatures, pressure, solid drop out, phase changes), fluid and material compatibility, system requirements etc. The ultimate aim of the JIP is to have both documents accepted as standards and discussions are ongoing with national/international bodies to meet this goal. Draft documents are due for completion by the end of 2008, ideally followed by rapid industry adoption. For more information please contact Gaurav Gupta.

Intelligent Energy 2008
February 2008 : OTM will be representing the SEAFOM and IWIS working groups at the forthcoming Intelligent Energy 2008 event in Amsterdam. Annie Hairsine and Crispin Keanie will be in attendance with details of the latest development’s on the ICON (Intelligent Completions on the Net) web portal. For more information please contact Annie Hairsine.

Milestone in technology strategy consulting
October 2007: The Technology Management Network (TMN) – has just celebrated its 25th meeting, hosted by Hydro in Bergen. Set up by OTM in 1998, membership includes 11 operators – BG, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ENI, OMV, Petrobras, Shell, StatoilHydro, Total, and Woodside.
Simultaneously, OTM’s work in the area of technology strategy and planning – both for operators and technology providers – continues to grow, with assignments recently completed for Agip KCO (Kashagan project group), BG, BP, ConocoPhillips and Petro-Canada. For more information please contact Chris Dudgeon.

TechnologyTradingPost™ – the new market intelligence service for oil and gas technology
September 2007: OTM has developed Technology Trading Post™ – to provide a single online focal point for the identification and tracking of emerging and existing technologies in the upstream oil and gas sector worldwide. The heart of the system is a global R&D/ technology database encompassing details of JIPs (Joint Industry Projects), umbrella technology development programmes (e.g. DeepStar, Demo2000 etc.), R&D projects at key research institutes worldwide, and publicly funded technology projects. This is also now being supplemented by state-of-the-art reviews in key ‘gamechanging’ technology areas. For more details and to access the database visit www.technologytradingpost.com. For more information please contact George Trowbridge.

Major step forward in promoting intelligent wells technology uptake - IWIS initiative
September 2007: IWIS (Intelligent Well Interface Standard) has just launched its Recommended Practice for industry, enabling a major step forward in the uptake of intelligent well completion technology. After 10-years work and contributions from more than 33 firms, a final JIP meeting and celebratory dinner took place during September in Houston. OTM has project managed IWIS since 2000, providing professional facilitation services and enabling often competing companies to work together. At the same time two related JIPs also managed by OTM, held meetings in Houston – SIIS, developing an interface standard for subsea instrumentation and SEAFOM, one of the fasting growing JIPs now with over 30 members, promoting the growth of fibre optics subsea. For more information please contact Paul Johnson.

OTM continues its exciting growth
August 2007: Over the last few months we have seen our team grow immensely and we are pleased to welcome six new staff from a wide range of backgrounds and parts of the globe:
   -  Robert Hamilton joins us from Smith International in Dubai, where he was a regional product manager;
   -  Rachel Gavey joins us after studying for a PhD in geosciences at Southampton University;
   -  Gaurav Gupta joins us from Ferrari’s innovation group in Italy, having previously studied chemical engineering;
   -  Saif Rahman joins us fresh from an MBA at Oxford University, having previously worked for Chevron;
    - Jonathan Welton joins our IT department from Surrey University.
In addition we now have associates in both Aberdeen and Houston.

Commercialising marine renewables technologies
June 2007: Over the last few months, OTM has been advising Scotrenewables on the commercialisation of its innovative tidal turbine device. Scotrenewables is supported by a Carbon Trust Incubator (managed by
ANGLE Technology Ltd), aiming to move its pioneering early-stage technology towards successful commercialisation. As part of the Incubator services, OTM has worked with Scotrenewables to develop a strategy for manufacturing and maintenance, and has carried out modelling of the supply chain to identify critical component suppliers and the optimum relationships required with each supplier. Scotrenewables are now commencing build of a 1.2MW full-scale prototype device which will be installed at the EMEC offshore testing facility in Orkney in 2008.

Analysing technology needs – BG Group
April 2007:OTM has recently completed the planning and facilitation of a series of technology needs workshops for BG Group, for the identification of technical challenges amongst different assets worldwide (including UK, India and Trinidad), to enable an improved linking of assets’ technical challenges, associated technology needs and opportunities, and the subsequent corporate technology programme.

TAML e-Newsletter
April 2007: See the latest TAML e-Newsletter - Details of new website, TAML Meetings, Steering Committee, Energy Award, TAML Statistics, New Members and New Technology (www.taml.net/newsite/newsletter)

ICON
February 2006:Annie Hairsine, OTM, presented ICON reliability analysis at the SPE ATW In-well Optical Sensing for Subsea Applications - Are we ready? Tue 7th Feb 2006. The full presentation can be found here

OTM Innovation Prize
December 2005:The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) has awarded the first OTM Innovation Prize to Aberdeen-based Brinker Technology Ltd for their innovative Platelet TM Technology. The prestigious OTM Innovation trophy and a prize of GBP1000 were presented to Bernie Anson, Chairman of Brinker Technology, at the SUT AGM on board HQS Wellington, London on 8 December 2005. The full press release can be found here

SIIS protocol standard
November 2005:The OTM managed SIIS JIP, Subsea Instrumentation Interface Standardisation JIP (www.siis-jip.com), which was set up two years ago with the aim of standardising the interfaces deployed in the subsea industry has reached a significant milestone: The Canbus CANOPEN interface type has been selected as the SIIS protocol standard for Level IV subsea sensors. For further information please contact Annie Hairsine.