Ocean Power Technologies Inc., based in Monroe Township, has signed a contract with Premier Oil to deploy a PowerBuoy at an offshore field in the Central North Sea, it announced Thursday.
“For the second time in less than four months, we have signed a contract for the lease of a PowerBuoy in the offshore oil and gas market. This commercial contract is a breakthrough for OPT and reflects our continuing commitment to support customers where decommissioning activities can benefit from an autonomous solution for surveillance and monitoring. We’re pleased to be working with OGTC, and we look forward to helping Premier Oil advance its safe operational excellence in the North Sea through this phase of the project, as well as potentially other oil and gas operators around the world,” George H. Kirby, CEO and president of OPT, said.
The project is expected to start in June and deployment in Huntingon Field, the offshore field, is slated for October. The deployed PowerBuoy will serve as a self-sustaining intelligence platform to provide communications and remote monitoring services. During the deployment, Premier Oil will explore the PowerBuoy’s capabilities and its ability to monitor the environment and alert shipping of its position.
The project is backed by Aberdeen-based Oil & Gas Technology Centre.
“Following successful completion of the feasibility study earlier this year, we are excited to move to this next phase in the form of a deployment of the PowerBuoy. We think this technology has a lot of potential and it aligns well with our goals of increasing safety, efficiency and operational effectiveness. The PowerBuoy system will deliver on all these aspects and offer a step change in our decommissioning planning processes. It also opens up potential future applications for intelligent, remotely controlled small field developments,” Pieter voor de Poorte, Premier Oil’s subsea decommissioning lead, said.
