Exploiting NERC-funded research to beneficially impact upstream workflows in the petroleum industry

Exploiting NERC-funded research to beneficially impact upstream workflows in the petroleum industry. Significant economic impacts can derive from effective KE, through immediate application of knowledge, and also by enabling end-users to make their own connections between information, knowledge and application. This proposal aims to increase the impact of NERC-funded science from within the University of Leeds in a two-way exchange with industrial partners, through:
1) Executive Directorship of the Centre for Integrated Petroleum Engineering and Geoscience (CiPEG), leading to beneficial economic impact on upstream petroleum industry workflows;
2) Dissemination of the CiPEG model within the University of Leeds to help lead further development of KE across other NERC funded research areas with focus on carbon sequestration and multiphase flow;
3) Co-Directorship of the Virtual Seismic Atlas, an interactive website promoting the study of seismic reflection data.
The key barrier to progress is leadership time: hence this Fellowship application.

The long record of the oil and gas industry in funding stand-alone research consortia is a good indicator of the recognition of the knowledge to impact pathway in this sector. The Fellowship goal is to add extra value to this pathway through the better exploitation of NERC science. The attached letters of support show that a strong industry drive, and willingness to participate matches the NERC science sector goal to increase impact; this bodes well for an effective KE partnership.

The workplan detailed below targets the sector of Resource Management, with focus on the Energy Business Area. The workplan entails two overarching objectives: i) the development of partnerships with business, and ii) linked data development initiatives.
i. The partnerships with business will principally be with companies in the oil and gas sector – both British Companies with national (UK) and international exploration and production portfolios (e.g., BP, BG), and also international companies with UK exploration and production portfolios (e.g. Britannia Operator Ltd (principally Chevron-Texaco and Conoco-Phillips) & Marathon).
ii. The KE pathway will involve the iterative exchange of research ideas, data, and application opportunities. The data development initiative will entail the creation of KE-informed databases of research, bibliographies of academic literature and the interpretation and ranking of such literature from an applied perspective and relational databases of sedimentary architecture (the building blocks of oil and gas reservoir models). An example of this approach is detailed in the Fellows Statement.

The planned activities entail liaison both within the host organisation (Leeds University) and with external stakeholders. At the most basic level this will involve: holding internal workshops; mentoring colleagues; supervising business support staff; developing promotional materials, websites and other media; engaging the University Secretariat. External activities will entail visiting companies in-house; attendance at conferences and other business meetings; convening conferences, symposia and business meetings.

These activities will be aligned so as to facilitate the achievement of the overall project objectives, as outlined in Section 7 and as detailed below. Value will derive to the external project partners through their engagement with University of Leeds research groups. These groups will play a key role in directing NERC science to where it may best inform business decisions.

The principal barrier to implementation is that the pressures upon workers in the oil and gas sector make it difficult to evaluate and synthesise the available research data so as to work out optimum applications of that knowledge. The KE approach embodied in the proposed workplan (and further detailed in the Fellow’s Statement) is specifically designed to reduce the effect of this barrier.

The key deliverables are detailed below, together with how they will be achieved, and the proposed metrics for evaluating success outlined. A key metric is the development of new partnerships with supporting companies. This metric is appropriate because impacts are company-specific, so exploitation of research and KE outputs will be more effective as the range of potential business users increases (see also the Economic Impact section for discussion of metrics).

Deliverables, metrics and timings:
1. Directorship of CiPEG, the Centre for Integrated Petroleum Engineering and Geoscience
• Dissemination of the TRG research group business model to other groups (see Section 11 for description of this model). Each of these groups will exploit NERC-funded research in the geological sciences. In particular:
o The Fluvial Research Group (FRG). Currently this group has 4 industrial collaborators that all provide excellent opportunities to promote successful examples of utilisation of research outcomes through case studies. The goal is to use these case studies to identify potential new users and ensure they are able to access the skills and expertise that they need to grow and compete,
Metric: By end 2012 the FRG should have a support group of 6 project partners.
o There are plans to launch a Basin Structure Group (BSG) with Dr. Douglas Paton leading. This will entail coaching Dr Paton in the approaches that have already been successful for the TRG and FRG (and thus is an example of an internal KE to external KE pathway). The direct deliverable will be better application of UK-derived structural geology expertise in oil company workflows, both in the UK and globally.
Metrics: the group will be formally launched by 2011, and will have attracted a support group of at least 3 partner companies by 2013.
o There are plans to start a Shale Research Group (SRG). The area of Shale Gas is an important one that is attracting much interest as it has the potential to increase energy security whilst reducing reliance on carbon-intensive coal. The UK has shale gas potential that is not yet appraised. The goal of this group is to facilitate appraisal and help new collaborating partners understand effective practice and systems for shale gas recovery.
Metric: The goal is to launch the group in 2011 and to achieve a support level of at least 3 partner companies by the end of the Fellowship period.
• Development of the TRG. TRG collaborators are predominantly the Major oil companies plus large Independents. The goal is to further market TRG research and knowledge transfer to National Oil companies.
Metric: to develop partnerships with at least 3 new supporting companies by the end of the Fellowship period.
• Development of collaborative bids to Industry. As CiPEG matures, it should progressively become more effective at fostering genuinely collaborative and integrated research. It is difficult to define an appropriate metric at this stage, but the goal is to be able to demonstrate effective integration by the end of the Fellowship period.

2. Promotion of the CiPEG organisational model within the University
CiPEG is an example of an attempt to build a virtual presence that makes explicit the links within a cognate area to boost effective KE. The aim is to assign 15% time to promote the CiPEG organisation model into other NERC-facing subject areas within the University. This model has been effective for CiPEG, as the University is now beginning to develop the presence in this field that its expertise should warrant. In turn this enables the University, to maximise the impact of KE through research and training by better exploiting this presence. Application of this model should facilitate development of:
• A Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) group. This is currently in early stage development, led by Dr. Doug Angus. The group will collate all relevant expertise in this field, defining a carbon pathway, and associating appropriate University expertise at each stage. This systems approach will entail application of NERC science in the sedimentological, structural and geo-mechanical appraisal necessary to optimise sequestration site choice. Preliminary contact has been made with local businesses (e.g., CO2Sense); Yorkshire is a key point source emitter of CO2 and also hosts potential onshore and offshore sequestration sites.
Metric: The CCS group will be formally constituted by end 2011, and will have developed project partnerships by early 2013. These could take the form of external research contract, though other KE collaborations are also possible.
• A University Multiphase Flow Group. This group has just been constituted, to integrate the generic approaches that underpin University research in this area; I serve as deputy chair. Research is ongoing across a diverse range of NERC-facing fields, including forecasting sedimentation lifetimes of water supply reservoirs, investigating detailed sediment dynamics within turbidity currents, modelling sediment transport and flooding potentials in large river systems, investigating turbulent wind-wave interactions in environmental free-surface flows and fluid flow in hydrocarbon, water and CO2 reservoirs. The goal is to firmly establish the group through a research seminar series and a website by end 2011, sharing best practice and thus marketing NERC-funded University research effectively to external end-users.
Metric: new research collaborations and partnerships attributable to the MPG will be in place by early 2013.
3. Virtual Seismic Atlas co-Directorship
The Virtual Seismic Atlas (VSA) is an interactive website, originally NERC KT funded, that makes available examples seismic reflection data and their interpretation. The data comprise a mix of industry and public surveys - much collected under NERC auspices. Site traffic data suggest a user pool in excess of ~150k people. I am a co-Director of the VSA, and I aim to spend 5% of my time to support ongoing involvement.
Goal: the VSA will grow to become the default repository of seismic imagery and will establish a robust independent funding model by the end of the Fellowship