BP, Chevron, ABB and Kvaerner to study seafloor processing

Steve Sutherlin

ABB, BP, Chevron Corp. and Kvaerner said they have formed an alliance to study sea floor processing technology for deep-water oil and gas reserves.

Deep-sea production requires expensive process facilities on the ocean surface. The goal of the group is standardized, modular, compact and remotely operated facilities on the sea floor that reduce the operating difficulties, costs and environmental impacts of deep-sea production

The alliance is looking to define the level of investment required to close the gaps between current and new technology.

The study will be completed by project teams located in Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States and will involve more than 50 people. Initial work will build on efforts started by the oil industry in 1999.

Specific goals of the study are as follows:

New cost effective production facilities that are removable with parts that can be reused or recycled.

Increased oil recovery over traditional field development options such as floating production storage offloading.

Spin off technologies in the area of oil and gas treatment that could improve the operation of conventional facilities.

Provide the foundation of collaboration that could lead to further spending on this technology.

The study is expected to be complete by the end of the first quarter 2001.

Chevron is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Visit www.chevron.com

BP is of one of the world’s three largest petroleum and petrochemicals groups. Visit: www.bp.com

ABB’s worldwide oil, gas and petrochemical businesses include ABB Lummus Global, ABB Offshore Systems, ABB Soimi and ABB Vetco Gray. Visit: http://abb.com/

Kvaerner’s engineering and construction group organized in two core business areas: engineering and construction, and oil and gas. A Norwegian registered business with a London, UK-based international headquarters, Kvaerner’s syngas technology is being used at BP’s gas-to-liquids test facility, under construction in Nikiski, Alaska.

Visit: http://www.kvaerner.com