Technology Street
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ITF announces new Houston base
ITF has opened a new base in Houston as it plans to create stronger links with the technology development community and increase membership in North America.
ITF will be encouraging more proposals for joint industry projects from organisations in North America with up to 100% funding available for innovative oil and gas solutions. It has set a target of investing at least $15 million in technology projects in the region by 2015.
A not-for-profit organisation, ITF is owned by 26 of the largest operator and oil services companies in the world. They collaborate to fund ground-breaking technology solutions that address global industry challenges.
More than $5 million has been distributed to US and Canadian research institutes and companies through ITF so far, with targets to increase joint industry projects by 25% in the next four years and invest $1 million this year alone.
Dorothy Burke, Operations Director at ITF said: "Through building links with North America's leading academic institutes and cutting edge technology companies, significant funding can be provided to deliver game-changing technologies. The collaboration model is proven to work. 100% funding is available for the right solutions, and developers have direct access to our global membership of 26 major oil and gas companies."
ITF's new office on Post Oak Boulevard, Houston will provide a strategic meeting point for the team and a full-time in-country manager will be in place next year. The majority of ITF members have a base in Houston, with Marathon Oil the most recent to join from North America. ITF also intends to increase its total membership to 40 organisations by 2015.
Mrs Burke added: "The Gulf of Mexico and onshore provinces are challenging, with deep water, tight gas, heavy oil and unconventional resources and our members are collaborating to reduce cost, share risk and deliver more technologies into the field. We will be issuing a number of calls for proposals throughout the year to tackle these challenges."
Unconventional reservoirs are a key challenge area for 2011 as identified by ITF's membership. A technology workshop took place in Houston in April with the aim of identifying the gaps where technologies are needed.
Key unconventional requirements identified included: development of a simulator for unconventional reservoirs, up-scaling and a workflow for multi-scale modelling, optimized hydraulic fracking/economics, long term reservoir surveillance, in-situ stress measurement and improved understanding of rock and fluid physics to optimize production.
A global call for proposals will be launched by ITF in June with funding available for groundbreaking technologies to address members' needs.
ITF's international expansion plans include a base in Abu Dhabi which opened in April and two further offices opening in Perth (WA) and Kuala Lumpur later this year. There are a number of other important regions for the industry including China, South America and the former Soviet Union which ITF will monitor to enable market development at the right time.
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