Unmanned platforms gaining interest - Intelligent Energy Conference 2016

An industry chief claims that representatives from oil and gas companies at Intelligent Energy Conferenceare talking seriously about using large unmanned platforms as a result of the collapse in crude oil prices. According to Energy Voice, Judson Jacobs, Senior Director at IHS Energy, speaking at the SPE Intelligent Energy 2016 in Aberdeen said large-scale unmanned platforms are still not used enough. 

He cited an example of an unspecified company which set up an “extreme minimum-manned” platform on a shallow-water gas condensate field eight years ago.  He said the project showed capital expenditure could be reduced by removing manpower, without leading to increases in downtime.

Rather than stick to the new approach Mr Jacobs explained that the company went straight back to building platforms in the traditional manner. “There are not a lot of examples of this (using large-scale unmanned platforms) being done. There are only about five examples in the whole of industry that qualify.”

That could be about to change, however. 

“When oil is at $100 not a lot of people are asking for it, but that’s changing,” Mr Jacobs said. “Now lots of conversations are taking place out there. People are asking how can we bring down our costs? And that is coming from project groups, that is, the people who have to delay the projects.”

Mr Jacobs said large unmanned platforms could reduce capital and operating expenditure by up to 15% and 70% respectively.

You can read the full article at Energy Voice.