Research and development. In many companies, these are the crown jewels, the product differentiator, the way forward (ideally with patents pending) to corporate prosperity. The industry’s push into ever harsher and more remote environments pretty much guarantees that companies will do R&D whether they want to or not if they want to stay in the business. So it’s worth paying attention to the subject. For all the industry is knocked for its allegedly slow technological uptake, R&D appears to be a feverish and well-funded activity across the board. In fact, it’s a credit to the industry that no one is succumbing to the urge to coast on R&D while selling current technology as fast as they can manufacture it.

R&D is not done for the chief financial officer’s amusement, that’s for sure. Commercialization is the name of the game. But this is not so easy to accomplish. R&D — or at least the concepts that propel it — seem to be dividable into two categories: 1) the Big Ideas, and 2) stuff other companies will actually buy and use within a reasonable time horizon.

Let’s face it — some things work, others don’t. And among those that work, some are cost-effective, some are not. There are reasons for the industry’s proclivity to line up for serial number 002. Beta-testing technology in this business can be expensive.

Needless to say, the magazine in your hands has an interest in covering R&D. We understand that you may not be inclined to reveal what your company’s “Skunk Works” (as Lockheed’s legendary R&D group was memorably nicknamed) is up to with any degree of specificity. Fair enough. But what we would like to know are your thoughts on where petroleum industry R&D is going and where it should be going if you think those two directions are different. We would also like to know what you think are the industry’s biggest needs in the next 5 to 10 years. We don’t know of anyone cloning engineers yet, but beyond that problem, will R&D activities now in motion satisfy those needs? Below the Big Ideas, what will the industry actually buy and use? What area of operations stands to make the biggest technological advances? Where have we hit the technical wall?

In the great tradition of R&D, these are a lot of questions. If you would like to share your thoughts on any or all of them, we happen to have just the place. Drop in on E&P magazine’s nascent online discussion forums at www.eandp.info, click on the “Discussion Forums” link and then “New Technology.” Feel free to start a thread about any aspect of R&D (in any
area of industry operations) that interests you. If you are willing to spill the beans about your latest invention, we won’t discourage it. But the world of R&D contains many other worthwhile points of interest.

Finally, it’s interesting to note that the R&D process has changed. As the chief technology officer for a major operator pointed out recently, R&D is no longer set apart and insulated from a company’s day-to-day business. R&D activities are now more closely aligned with company strategy. This doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the Big Idea. Maybe its trip to commercialization will just get shorter.