Versus to support UK IPE research, training

Accurate 3-D visualization in the OGAVC will aid subsurface oil and gas extraction and carbon storage opportunities.  Image from Heriot-Watt University.

A major funding package from Versus Petroleum for the Institute of Petroleum Engineering (IPE) will directly support research and training for the future of the industry in UK offshore waters.

Heriot-Watt’s Chief Scientist, Professor John Underhill, has secured funding of US$537,000 (£416,000) from Verus Petroleum, an independent oil company active on the United Kingdom continental Shelf (UKCS).

The award will support a number of oil and gas related training and applied geoscience research activities in IPE including the NERC Centre for Doctoral Training(CDT), the Ogilvie-Gordon 3D Audio-Visualization Centre (OGAVC) and UKCS and Frontier Basins PhD research activities.

These training and research activities and technical support will offer significant benefits to the future of the UKCS industry and development in terms of exploration and production and in maximizing production in existing fields through the application of geoscientific innovation and state-of-the-art subsurface visualization technology. The funding package underlines Verus’ commitment to the UKCS as well as the quality of research and training that exists within IPE.

"The initiatives being supported will have a significant bearing on the future of the UKCS exploration and production activities by providing a research base to help us overcome key geological challenges and thus help us to maximize the economic recovery from and extend the life of the mature basin,” says Alan Curran, Verus Petroleum CEO. “The Ogilvie-Gordon 3D Audio-Visualization center will play an important role in knowledge transfer and collaboration and has the potential to reach beyond the immediate sphere of the oil industry and inspire future generations of geoscientists and engineers."

“I am delighted to welcome Verus Petroleum as a valued industry partner to support the management of the CDT. In so doing, they take the number of companies supporting the program into double figures, something that is a testament to the continued attraction of the postgraduate training program that has been built and being successfully provided,” says John Underhill, HWU chief scientist, professor of Exploration Geoscience and Academic Director of the NERC CDT. “In addition to the support for the CDT, it is tremendous that companies like Verus see the benefit of our UK Continental Shelf and frontier basins research and training programs based in the Institute of Petroleum Engineering at Heriot-Watt. I look forward to working on the new projects including the launch of the Ogilvie-Gordon 3D Audio-Visualisation Centre (OGAVC) later this year.”