Monitoring moving subsea

Oil in water monitoring firm Pro Analysis has taken up the challenge of developing its technology for subsea use.

Ever increasing water levels in production wells and stricter environmental standards are driving a research and development project to have a subsea oil-in-water monitor by 2015.

The work is being carried out by Norway’s Pro Analysis. It has already had support from the Norwegian Research Council and Statoil to develop a topside solution and now it wants to take its laserbased Argus technology subsea.

“Earlier, no technology has met the requirements the oil industry has set in this field,” said marketing manager, Sigurd Bekkevold in Pro Analysis.

“A common way has been to collect a water sample in bottle, carry it up to the lab on the platform and manually analyze it. Often the result from the single measurement was not ready until the day after. In contractcontrast, our technology provides continuous measurements in real time. This implies a great difference in the usefulness.”

The company was founded in 1996 and focused on so-called laser-induced fluorescence as a mean to measure the fluorescent light when it hits hydrocarbons.

In 2001 Pro Analysis started to develop laser technology that could continuously estimate the quantity of oil in water. With support from the Norwegian Research Institute from the start and by Statoil from 2004, the pilot was completed in 2007.

Subsea such technology could play a key role in the development of subsea separation, leading towards Statoil’s goal of having a full subsea factory by 2020.

“One important step is to precisely measure the oil content in the produced water on the seabed, before the water either is further purified, discharged to the sea or reinjected into the reservoir,” said Bekkevold.

The research-based company, with 15 staff, had help from NCE Subsea for a pre-project, which meant it could define a project and seek partners that could join it in the development process. While it did not get any partners, it the process helped it define a specification and showed the project to the industry.

Then, last year, Pro Analysis was invited into a project by Statoil. The purpose was precisely to develop a subsea instrument for measuring oil in water. The project, Subsea Oil in Water Monitoring Development, got started and is scheduled to be completed by 2015.

It has also initiated research collaboration with CMR, University of Bergen and Polytech in order to develop parts of the subsea solution. With funding from the Norwegian Research Council, the purpose is to develop a glass surface that prevents contaminations to stick to the glass. A clean glass provides more accurate and reliable measurements. The drive towards developing the technology is explained by Bekkevold.

“First, there is an ever increasing regulation of environmental emissions. Second, the amount of produced water from wells is increasing all around the world. In addition water injection increases as the fields approach tail production and this also increase demand of oil in water measurements. The understanding of what our technology can do, even on the seabed, will in future increase even more”, Bekkevold firmly believes.”

Pro Analysis AS is a provider of oil in water monitoring technology for the oil and gas industry, and is located in Bergen, Norway. The Argus technology was introduced to the North Sea in 2008. In 2009 the technology was introduced world-wide.