The Research Council of Norway has announced that two new national petroleum centres will receive state funding, following a decision in the Portfolio Board for Petroleum.

The new centres are:

• National centre for sustainable utilisation of energy resources on the Norwegian continental shelf. Responsible for the project – University of Stavanger.
• Centre for sustainable subsurface resources. Responsible for the project - NORCE in Bergen.

Both petro centres have a timeframe of eight years, and the funding framework is NOK 80 million (NOK 10 million per year) for each centre.

The centres have a number of Norwegian and foreign research partners in addition to partners from the industry. Several doctoral students (PhD) with important expertise for the industry will complete their educations thanks to these centres.

The Research Council also recently announced that both innovation and demonstration projects linked to the petroleum portfolio will receive funding, totalling NOK 68 million.

A number of exciting projects within the following topics also received funding in this round:

• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy efficiency and environment
• Understanding of the subsurface
• Drilling, completion, intervention and plugging of wells (P&A)
• Production, processing and transport
• Major accidents and working environment

Arvid Østhus, technology coordinator in the NPD and member of the Portfolio Board for Petroleum says it is gratifying the good applications within the petroleum portfolio can be rewarded with state funding:

"Much remains to be done on the Norwegian shelf, which is why more research and innovation are needed. The objectives and the plans for the new petro centres are exciting and fit quite well with the NPD’s goal of good resource management on the Norwegian shelf. It will be exciting to follow this work and the results from these centres and the projects in the time ahead."

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate