“The work of the international jury this year has been more challenging than previously”, says Erik Skaug, director for industry and energy at the Research Council of Norway and chairman of the award jury. “Many initiatives of the same standard indicate that the level of innovation in the industry is generally high. At the same time, however, we are not seeing any outstanding new concepts.”
Companies/products on the shortlist are:
Baker Hughes INTEQ, Team 2000
Baker Oil Tools, InCharge intelligent well system
Maritime Well Service, Advanced production logging system
Maritime Well Service, Integrated production control (IPC)
Norsk Hydro, H-Sep downhole horizontal separation system
Roxar, Integrated reservoir and production management (IRPM)
Solco Energy, Total energy preservation system (TPS)
Twister, Twister supersonic separator
It is interesting to observe that this year’s nominees all represent technologies that are closely connected with the production process. Gone are the different concepts for exploration of the oilfields.
Experience from previous years suggests that the award will go to the technology which is expected to have the biggest impact on future exploration. Two years ago ABB won the prize for its Subsis concept, which is now in full operation on the Troll Oil field. Technical Review Weekly’s favourite is a natural successor to this award, the Norsk Hydro Horizontal Downhole Separator, which will be installed on the Brage field later this year or early in 2001. The subsurface downhole separator represents tomorrow’s technology and was developed by Norsk Hydro, Kvaerner Oilfield Product and Wear Pumps.
