It’s been more than 40 years since first oil flowed at Ekofisk in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, and in that time the energy industry has established itself as a central component to the Norwegian economy. The industry has grown considerably and now finds itself as a leader in the development of the rapidly growing subsea technology market sector.

According to Infield Systems in its recent “Subsea Market Watch 2014-2018,” global subsea capex and subsea tree installations are both anticipated to double in the next five years, with the subsea market growing at a compound annual growth rate of 6.72% from 2014 to 2018. In particular, Europe will become the largest region in terms of subsea tree installations despite the fact that it will contribute just 11% of subsea capex, the report said. This is due to a lack of capital-intensive deepwater activity in the Northwestern European Continental Shelf subregion, with the majority of subsea tree installations tied to smaller, more marginal accumulations in shallow waters, according to the report. Statoil is expected to continue to dominate the European subsea industry up to 2018.

Keeping up with global and local demand along with rising costs are just two of many challenges facing the industry. Standardization is another.

New JIP seeks to standardize documentation

Standardization in all aspects of the subsea industry was a key discussion topic at this year’s Underwater Technology Conference in Bergen, Norway, mid-June. A popular counterpoint to the discussion was the notion that standardization could stifle innovation. The documentation process was tagged time and time again as one of the greatest burdens in a project.

DNV GL Oil and Gas announced in May the launch of a joint industry project (JIP) to standardize subsea documentation. A typical subsea project can involve more than 10,000 documents (with up to 80,000 in a complex project) over a life cycle of 30 years, according to a company release.

To develop, maintain and verify the quality, security, accuracy and availability of documentation, operators, contractors and suppliers will often spend millions of dollars on document management, technical review and information management systems. Consequently, the lack of standardization can lead to misunderstandings; a reduction in quality; and difficulty in handling approvals, distribution and availability, the organization said in a release. This further leads to increasing project lead times and costs for both customers and suppliers.

There are multiple subsea projects, both in Norway and elsewhere, that would benefit from an industry standard for subsea documentation, the release said. As well as improving documentation quality and assisting with on-time delivery, a standard should save suppliers, contractors and operators valuable engineering hours by reducing the need to define and review technical documents.

“The aim of this broad industry collaboration initiated by DNV GL and the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association is to develop a standardized set of subsea-system documents for designing, approving, manufacturing, verifying, operating and maintaining equipment,” explained the JIP project manager Jarl S. Magnusson, project manager for DNV GL Oil & Gas.

The collaboration originated from the 2010 KonKraft Åm report, which sought options to increase hydrocarbon recovery on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, according to the company release. The proposal to standardize documentation arose from one of several projects developed by the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association to drive standardization within the subsea arena.

The outcome of this JIP will be a DNV GL recommended practice (RP) aimed at establishing industry guidelines and recommendations required to document typical subsea products and systems, with an associated minimum set of documentation.

Partners in the JIP include many of the major subsea companies and organizations, like Aker Subsea, OneSubsea and FMC Technologies as well as operators like Statoil Petroleum and Lundin Norway.

Collaborating to harvest the ‘Blue Acreage’

The clustering of industry-focused businesses for collaboration and technology development in a specific geographical area is not a new strategy. For example, California’s Silicon Valley is one of the more widely known clusters of like-minded people coming together in a central area to collaborate and generate solutions for the computing industry. In Norway—a country with a coastline of more than 25,000 km (15,534 miles)—the strategy is being applied to harvest what the country’s maritime cluster calls the “Blue Acreage.”

The Norwegian Centers of Expertise (NCE) program was established to enhance innovation and globalization processes in the country’s most dynamic and growth-oriented clusters. The program accomplishes its goals through support of long-term collaboration between industry, R&D and the public sector.

Launched in 2006, there are 12 clusters that have been selected as NCE projects and two designated as Global Centers of Expertise (GCE) projects. Innovation Norway, along with the Research Council of Norway and SIVA, jointly own and implement the government-funded program.

Focus areas of the NCE projects are varied, ranging from food production to nanotechnology to systems engineering to instrumentation. The two GCE projects—NODE and Blue Maritime—each focus on different offshore efforts. Located along the country’s southern coast in Kristiansand, NODE represents local companies that deliver offshore and drilling engineering solutions. The Blue Maritime cluster is on the west coast of Norway in Møre and comprises designers, builders and operators of vessels.

In the Bergen area—an area long known as a center of subsea development—organizations that provide products or services to the subsea industry are clustered under the banner of NCE Subsea. The cluster, led by CEO Owe Hagesæther, has partnered with subsea industry leaders like Aker Solutions, FMC Technologies, OneSubsea and Statoil and more than 140 businesses, R&D centers and educational institutions to strengthen and promote the Norwegian subsea industry.

“We are working to increase the revenue of our member companies by two things,” Hagesæther told E&P. “One is by trying to help them, especially the smaller and medium-range companies, create a marketplace for their products in foreign markets. Very often, these companies are too small to have the necessary market intelligence and relations on their own. By bringing the Norwegian subsea industry into foreign markets—like Brazil, Gulf of Mexico, Southeast Asia and Africa—they can gain from all the knowledge and solutions developed in the North Sea.

“The other is to facilitate and ensure more R&D development of products and service from the industry. The subsea industry is quite young; there are a lot of things still left undone. We try to help and facilitate the development of products that the industry seems to really need.”

To do this, the cluster members work together to provide the environment necessary for product development.

“We think that for the large companies to be competitive and to be able to deliver, they need the smaller companies as suppliers,” he said. “And the smaller companies need the larger companies as a market and also [to have access to] this huge environment to help them be efficient in their product development.”

For Hagesæther, he sees NCE Subsea playing a role in moving the standardization conversation forward to the next step.

“I personally think that the most important players when it comes to standardization are the big operators. NCE Subsea in a way can help by bringing together all the members to discuss ideas about which standards to choose,” he said. “At the Underwater Technology Conference this year, there was much discussion about standardization and innovation because if you standardize too much, you can prevent innovation. We can help by bringing up all the good arguments on which level we should standardize in the industry.”

A major concern among many in the industry is the increasing cost of doing business. Hagesæther sees this as the biggest challenge overall, but there are ways it can be brought down.

“The subsea industry is not a very mature industry. We have a lot to learn from more mature industries when it comes to running processes in a cost-efficient way, the methodology used, how they work together and standardization,” he said. “All of these things together are the biggest challenges for the subsea industry today.

Innovation is quite high; there are a lot of clever people out there coming up with new ideas, new technology solutions. I think that part is good, but cost is the biggest challenge.”

High-tech vessels, satellite communications enable smarter, safer decisions

Technology is changing the way offshore companies and service providers operate while at work in the North Sea.

By Blake McLane, EMC

Today’s deepwater field development vessels are designed with more versatility and communications technology in mind than ever before and are crafted to leverage the newest release of industry applications and tools.

The North Sea is one of the most advanced oil and gas markets as it relates to leveraging and testing new technology. Vessels deployed there are relying more on communications technology with the increased efficiency of satellite connectivity solutions.

These optimized solutions—combined with operational applications and drilling and exploration technology—enable smarter, safer decision-making for offshore exploration and production.

Emerging Markets Communications (EMC), a global satellite communications (VSAT) company, is working with a major subsea construction company that specializes in project management for subsea umbilicals, risers and flowlines in the North Sea. The company’s latest vessel has been outfitted with new features that enhance the onboard safety for its 200-member crew.

The VSAT connectivity that EMC provides will be available to the company and all of its partners providing services on the vessel. The reliability of the communications is critical during the pipeline-laying process. Lapse in service could cause safety hazards and misplacement of pipe under the ocean.

Based on this proprietary optimization and efficiency technology, EMC is able to deliver high-definition (HD) video services for real-time operations and enhanced HSE (with better quality video delivered in real time).

Traditionally, this was not possible because the VSAT bandwidth to support HD video was not cost-efficient and did not meet the return-on-investment requirements. But with EMC’s Noise Reduction System and configuration this technology converts more megabytes per megahertz from the satellite to the remote location.

In addition to the safety and production benefits, optimized bandwidth solutions also impact onboard crew morale because they are able to use the Internet in the same way they use it onshore—for social media, Skype and Netflix. Cellphone calls and Voice over Internet Protocol are included in the solution and are delivered in a model that is commercially accepted by both the operations and the crew members.

These new developments in communications technology are changing the way that offshore companies and service providers operate at sea. Vessels, rigs and platforms— both fixed and mobile—have more options in the utilization satellite connectivity for operations, safety and onboard crew.