The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Joint venture plans to create global centre of excellence
North Sea: RGU principal revealed initiative to support late-life management
Robert Gordon University (RGU) unveiled its plans for a global centre of excellence for late-life management and decommissioning in the North Sea yesterday.
RGU principal Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski told an audience at a business breakfast in US oil capital Houston that the institution, along with Aberdeen University, would commit between £20million and £30million to the project in a joint-venture with the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC).
Speaking just days before the Offshore Technology Conference gets underway in Houston, Prof von Prondzynski said OGTC would allow the universities to become “critical agents of structural and economic development and change in the northeast of Scotland”.
This would drive the research and development necessary to make sure Scotland retains its expertise as the reserves of remaining oil in the North Sea inevitably decline.
OGTC and the centre of excellence, which is expected to be up and running later this year, will also ameliorate historically poor connections between industry and academia in Scotland, he said.
He added: “This has become a critical thing we all have to get right.
“One of the things we have to notice about Scotland as a whole but the north-east in particular is the very low level of industry research and development (R&D).
“An awful lot of really significant research gets done in Scotland.
“And yet Scottish industry – and I’m not specifically referring to the oil and gas industry – has one of the lowest levels of R&D of any industrialised country or region in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
“You have these extraordinary powerhouses in the universities doing stuff that gets international recognition and you have a truly excellent industry, but it isn’t making that particular connection.
“In RGU, the research we were doing tends to be quite close to market unlike some other universities. Nevertheless, the exploitation of that was almost exclusively not in Scotland.
“Why is it we are so far behind in that? This has become a really significant question for the north-east of Scotland in particular because ... we must now look at what will happen when the natural resource in the North Sea is gone.
“If you look at other places around the world that have been key regions servicing the oil industry and where the oil industry has moved away, there is still a lot of economic and industrial activity related to it. Houston is an example of that particular phenomenon.
“It is not necessarily the case that Scotland without oil will be a Scotland without an oil industry.
“But in order to get this right we need to have a much higher level of industry innovation linked to university innovation.”
The event – sponsored by Pinsent Masons – also highlighted the university’s foundation, which is ramping up fundraising efforts. exciting times ahead with near-term cashflow from revenue from the UK Orlando field and many business development opportunities.”
Atlantic recently struck a deal to sell its stake in the Orlando licence to a former boss at First Oil for an initial £820,000 plus 2% of the field’s revenues until 5million barrels of oil have been produced.
After that the revenue share to Atlantic increases to 4.35%.