Collaboration is not a new concept, but it is one that can be swept aside in the rush to be the first to market or shelved when inconvenient due to humankind’s competitive spirit. However, it is a concept that has of late been rediscovered, thanks to a variety of factors like rising costs and declining profits. Finding lower cost alternatives that are easier on the environment while maintaining or increasing oil and gas production is one of the industry’s tougher challenges. Realizing that the possible solutions to the challenge may require the casting of a much larger net, GE and Statoil teamed up earlier this year in their
“Powering Collaboration” joint technology program.

The collaboration was launched in January as an ambitious joint technology-focused program to drive industrial solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing global oil and gas production. The initiative seeks to reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas development and production by accelerating the development of environmentally and economically sustainable
energy solutions, a GE-issued press release said.

In addition to the collaboration initiative, the companies launched a global open innovation challenge. The first challenge aimed
to address the use of sand in unconventional resources. The call for entries for the second challenge was announced in July. The focus of the second challenge is on water usage in the development of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs.

“This collaboration with Statoil is centered on both our companies’ commitment to continued investment in technology and innovation to help develop low-cost and more efficient energy solutions. We recognize that great ideas transcend any one company or geography, which is why we’ve launched this open innovation challenge,” said Eric Gebhardt, CTO at GE Oil and Gas, in the press release. “We invite individual innovators, institutions and companies large and small from around the world to co-develop potential solutions to make energy production more sustainable by improving the use of water in unconventional
operations.”

This second challenge seeks to find innovative solutions to both reducing freshwater usage and treating and reusing water from development activities while maintaining or improving productivity, the press release said.

“Ideas at any scale are welcome,” said Lars Høier, senior vice president of R&D and innovation for Statoil ASA. “Even incremental strides in improving water management can add up to significant conservation gains. Wherever possible we try to reduce freshwater usage; for example, we recently successfully fractured two wells with 100% produced water, saving 3.5 million gallons of freshwater per well—and we are eager to do more to help move the industry toward better water conservation.”

In this challenge, up to five winning entries will win a prize of $25,000 each and the opportunity to be eligible to receive
additional funding from an available discretionary prize pool of $375,000 in development funds. In addition, the two companies will leverage their joint assets and resources to support the commercialization of the winning submissions.

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