Norwegian contractor Kvaerner has been backed by Canadian-based research organisations for a new study on using subsea separation and storage technology in frontier Arctic areas as an alternative to surface facilities.
Statoil in Canada and the Research and Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador will support a Kvaerner-led R&D program, which will test the use of subsea oil separation and storage equipment located on the seabed.
Kvaerner submitted a proposal to Statoil’s Arctic R&D Step Up program last year, which led to the R&D contract. Research is to focus on using concrete storage tanks on the seabed to process and separate oil, gas and water from a field.
Research will be carried out in St. John’s in Newfoundland, backed by Kvaerner’s expertise in Oslo, with the aim of completing the work in the first quarter of 2015.