简介：位于阿伯丁的行业技术促进会（ITF）近期在休斯顿举办了两天议程的会议，旨在推动新一代技术方案在油气行业内的应用。来自各大公司的与会代表齐聚石油城，着重讨论了海洋修井作业和油藏成像技术，ITF也打算针对这些技术建立研究项目，并最终投入商业应用。

 Aberdeen-based Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) held two full days of meetings in Houston recently aimed at planning the next stage of technology solutions for the oil and gas industry. Attendees from many of the major operators and service providers in the Houston area identified several challenges in the areas of subsea interventions and reservoir imaging that ITF aims to build into research projects, and eventually, meaningful commercial technologies.

The ITF is a nonprofit organization owned by its members, which currently consists of 22 global oil and gas operators and service companies. It acts as an honest broker between technology innovators and users, and has a key objective to identify technology needs, foster innovation, and facilitate the development and implementation of new technologies.

“We wanted to host our two technology theme days in Houston to take advantage of its stature as a major oil and gas technology knowledge center,” said David Liddle, operations director for the ITF. “This is particularly true in relation to our two technology themes.”

The first theme day, sponsored by Aramco Services Company, focused entirely on the challenges facing improved subsea intervention. The second day, hosted by ConocoPhillips, provided attendees the opportunity to debate the technology issues around reservoir imaging in challenging environments.

“We began by asking the attendees to think about the major challenges in each area,” said Liddle. “We then picked the top six challenges from each theme and began to drill down into the details of each challenge, assimilating information such that calls for proposal can be prepared.”

Topics selected in the area of subsea interventions included:

Cost-effective, lightweight drilling and intervention units
Intervention technologies that can effectively operate in ever-deeper reservoirs with greater high-pressure/high-temperature (HP/HT) requirements
Automation improvements in the areas of downhole diagnostics and power sources at the seabed
Developing a better understanding of the mission of autonomous underwater vehicles and formulating realistic capabilities for them
Advances in coiled tubing for better performance in deeper waters and reservoirs, as well as in lateral sections
The reservoir-imaging theme day highlighted several topics for further study, among them:

Imaging improvements for sub-basalt regions
Improved methods to ensure high-quality images that accurately reflect the conditions in the reservoir
Investigating imaging advances from outside the oil and gas industry, such as from the medical and aerospace communities, and looking for potential applications
“With these ideas in hand, we will now put together a more robust call for proposal for each and then distribute to our members for verification and clarification in early 2010,” Liddle said.

“This process has been successful for us in developing research programs for other technology areas in the past,” he continued. “Last year, we launched 30 projects worth a total of USD 16-17 million to the industry. This year, in spite of the global recession, we should launch 15 projects with a total value of USD 8-9 million.”

Liddle stressed that ITF is constantly looking for new technology ideas. “We will take suggestions from anywhere in the world, from any technology sector.”

Anyone interested in contributing suggestions to the calls for proposal on subsea interventions or reservoir imaging are encouraged to contact Liddle at d.liddle@oil-itf.com, or by phone at +44.(0).122.485.3403.

To learn more about the ITF, visit www.oil-itf.com