SPT Group’s R&D partner IFE (Institute for Energy Technology) was presented with StatoilHydro's Research Prize for its work on multiphase flow and transport at the Tecnoport event in Trondheim on 22nd October.

Given annually, this prestigious award recognises IFE’s research on multiphase flow (transport of oil, gas and water in the same pipeline) which has made possible the extensive subsea developments where the untreated well stream is sent directly from a subsea template to an existing platform, or to shore, in a single multiphase pipeline. 

Per Gerhard Grini, Chief Researcher at StatoilHydro said: ”knowledge and methods to allow us to predict and understand how oil, gas and water behave during transportation in the same pipeline are essential to be able to develop a subsea field with long-distance transportation of well streams to shore or other production platforms” … continuing  ”The development of Troll A, Ormen Lange and Snøhvit had not been possible without this long and fundamental research effort performed by the IFE multiphase team,”.

Receiving the award, Jan Nossen, who is leading the IFE multiphase team, remarked: ”We are proud and would like to express our gratitude. The prize is a great inspiration to us in our further research effort. When we nearly 30 years ago started developing the first simulator, which became the actual heart of the OLGA simulation tool, the team had three members, he says. Now we are a large international research team developing ever more advanced calculation tools in cooperation with the petroleum industry. OLGA has become an industrial standard for modeling and calculation of multiphase flows.”

“On behalf of SPT Group, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to IFE on their well deserved award from industry” says Bjarte Håtveit, Executive Vice President of the OLGA Business Unit. SPT Group recognises the importance of its relationship with IFE in the ongoing development of OLGA software in general and through industry projects such as OVIP and HORIZON . This relationship allows IFE and SPT Group together to bring solutions to the oil and gas industry which address the challenges of wellstream transport.