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1996
New Alliance Encourages Cooperative Research and
Development
Members Count On Group Approach To Yield
Benefits For All
Reprinted with permission from Plant,
Canada's Industry Newspaper
Staying competitive
is the cornerstone of being profitable,and in the upstream oil and gas
industry that means constantly allocating sufficient resources to
researching, developing and utilizing leading-edge
technologies.
But faced with a volatile market, fluctuating prices
and the recession, both governments and industry continually slashed vital
R&D funding over the past few years as a stop-gap measure to improve
efficiencies. As a result, petroleum and gas producers found themselves in
an uphill battle to complete with domestic and foreign companies as access
to new and innovative technologies began to slip from their
grasp.
To escape this slippery slope, more than 30 of the country's
best known oil and gas companies, government agencies and institutions -
recognizing collaborations as the key to industry's future
success-recently formed non-profit Calgary-based Petroleum Technology
Alliance Canada (PTAC).
"PTAC brings stakeholders together to help
identify areas where technology makes a difference," says the alliance's
president, Eric Lloyd. "It identifies research projects to address these
problems and promotes industry participation in the resulting research and
technology." While industry players have collaborated over the years on a
number of projects, Lloyd says more work needs to be done to better
utilize the smaller pool of R&D resources.
The timing for PTAC
couldn't be better, Lloyd told Plant. According to Statistics Canada, the
industry's R&D - allocated resources plummeted by more than one-third
between 1988 and 1993. And while the industry's low research investment
hadn't quite reached crisis levels, something needed to be done. "Spending
was going down yet technology is critical to competitiveness in the
industry," adds Lloyd. "The problem now is no single organization can
afford to develop (new technology) on its own. I wouldn't say we're in a
crisis but the timing is right" for industry to collaborate in research
and development.
PTAC's roots go back to the fall of 1994 when industry
executives, attending their regular informal Vice-Presidents Breakfast
Club meeting decided to renew their emphasis on R&D spending. About 20
companies quickly collaborated and hired a consultant to examine the need
and support for a collaborative research and development alliance. The
study revealed overwhelming support and PTAC was born in late
spring.
The organization is currently setting up eight technical
subcommittees, including technical forums on the Internet. Initially, the
subcommittees will focus on production and processing of natural gas,
drilling, oil production, well completion, stimulation, oil and gas
transportation, reservoir recovery, geoscience and basic
research.
Its annual administrative budget is about $250,000,
collected through a sliding scale membership fee schedule based on the
size of the company. Annual fees range from about $100 to $11,000, with a
three-year commitment required.
Members include Alberta Energy Co.,
Amoco Canada Petroleum, Crestar Energy, Gulf Canada Resources, PanCanadian
Petroleum, Poco Petroleums, Ryan Energy, Saskatchewan Research Council,
Schlumberger, Talisman Energy, and the University of Calgary.
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