Radical Innovation P&A-sprint with Danish Offshore Technology Centre

Through their ongoing support for ETN’s Go Radical P&A project, leading operator companies Equinor TotalEnergies and Repsol - all members of the Energy Transition Norway cluster - are clearly focussed on delivering better solutions for the future abandonment of their oil and gas fields. 

Motivated by the need to find radical solutions to significantly reduce the cost of P&A operations, one of Energy Transition Norway’s most ambitious cluster projects – Go Radical P&A recently gathered representatives from Equinor, Repsol, the UK's Net Zero Technology Centre and the Danish Offshore Technology Centre (DOTC), at Energy Transition Norway's office in Innovation Park, Stavanger.

The intent of the meeting on November 21 was to review R&D opportunities derived from the DOTC 2023/2024 Radical Innovation Sprint process.

Common interest in a Pan-North Sea Radical P&A initiative

Since establishing the Go Radical Project in late 2022, it has become clear that there are a number of opportunities open to delivering the necessary solutions enabling GRaPA’s core strategy of delivering rig-less P&A.

While there are already a number of existing initiatives underway in Norway focusing on P&A performance improvement, there has been a general lack of collaboration across the traditional North Sea Oil and Gas boarders.  

GRaPA is currently prioritising two such cross-boarder opportunities:  

1. During the last couple of months, GRaPA has partnered with DOTC to participate in the 2023/2024 Radical Innovation Sprint in an attempt to identify R&D opportunities to deliver true radical downhole P&A solutions. Supported by Equinor and Repsol, GRaPA has identified a number of specific potential projects to be executed during Q1/Q2 2024, which could provide essential functionality supporting the move to rig-less P&A.  

2. GRaPA is currently in discussions with DOTC and the UK technology hub ETN Zero TC to establish a cross-boarder network focussed on accelerating the delivery of radical solutions enabling rig-less P&A and further delivering GRaPA’s goals of a 50% reduction in P&A cost and environmental footprint.

Tim Croucher has been one of the project managers for the GRAPA project under Energy Transition Norway since its start-up in October 2022.

- Through numerous conversations with key members of the P&A business, both within Norway and other global organisations, it has become abundantly clear that the most effective way of delivering effective radical solutions is to work together, to collaborate across boarders toward common goals adopting common strategies. It’s been interesting to see that many of those common goals and strategies already exist, says Croucher.

A great example is how GRaPA has been able to partner with Kristine Wille Hilstrøm and Karen Guldbæk Schmidt at the Danish Offshore Technology Centre and participate in the 2023/2024 Radical Innovation Sprint. 

- We have identified a number of very interesting potential R&D projects focused on delivering radical P&A solutions. We are currently working on securing financial support for these projects. We are also working with DOTC and Net Zero TD in Aberdeen to establish a more formal North Sea alliance with the goal of accelerating the delivery of radical P&A solutions, Croucher elaborates.

The Radical Innovation Sprint methodology

- The Radical Innovation Sprint methodology serves as a proven method to explore, select, and test unconventional ideas, unlocking the potential for high-risk, high-reward research-based innovation, Wille Hilstrøm explaines.

What constitutes radical ideas in the context of such a Sprint, includes leveraging well-known tools or expertise in new contexts, introducing new technology to address existing needs, offering updated solutions to supposedly solved problems, and presenting solutions for needs that are not yet recognized.

- With a fixed deadline of three months, the process involves ideation facilitation, insightful feedback, and application ranking by an anonymous committee comprising 12-15 non-paid experts from various fields, says Wille Hildstrøm.

ETN and GRaPA will continue to pursue a series of initiatives, including those outlined in this article during 2024.

More information on the GRaPA project is available through the GRaPA website and LinkedIn Group.