Abstract
For decades, technology development in the marine oil and gas industry has focused on accessing reserves in ever more challenging locations – the Arctic, West of Shetland, in deep waters, in high pressure and high temperature reservoirs and so on. While this trend will certainly continue, economic and environmental concerns, and technology progress are driving efforts to maximize oil recovery, reduce operating and capital expenditure, simplify access and intervention, and extend field life. At the vanguard of this change are advanced subsea systems. Subsea technology has been around for a few decades, but the mission of oil companies is now to put an entire subsea "factory" on the sea floor, with no facilities topside. The technical challenges presented by this quest are formidable, but the payoff is enormous.
Title photo text: Locating oil and gas recovery and processing equipment on the seabed and eliminating topside facilities entirely has many advantages. What technology is needed to accomplish it? Shown is a concept for a subsea power hub and distribution.
