Research and development has been an integral part of DNV GL for the past 50 years, with about 5 percent of the group annual gross revenue being reinvested in research and innovation. This is the highest level of investment in R&I in the sector, and most of it is allocated to five dedicated centers around the world.
The main objectives of the new DNV GL R&D Center in Rio de Janeiro are focused in the areas of offshore safety, subsea systems and equipment, deepwater drilling and well control.
“We are beginning the activities of the new R&D Unit with a couple of very significant projects involving reliability and maintenance of BOPs and integrity management of freespans in offshore pipelines. Both of the projects fit perfectly within the modern trend of using field data coupled with clever analytical models to provide added guidance and aid to decision-makers in charge of difficult operational decisions”, says Alex Imperial, the new O&G South America Regional Manager of DNV GL.
An important component of DNV GL research and innovation activities are the joint industry projects, which vary by size, complexity and number of partner organizations. But they all have one common goal, which is to solve a specific technical need and – where possible – to develop a new standard or technology that benefits the industry at large.
Many of the sector’s best-known and most widely-adopted practices are the outcome of this work.
Until now the majority of the joint industry project (JIPs) have been conducted by the DNV GL units in Houston, London and Oslo, where the decision-making centers for the largest oil and gas companies are located.
Recently an important JIP on horizontal directional drilling (HDD) entirely conducted and performed by Brazilian personnel, was concluded.
Two other important new JIPs are being launched from DNV GL in Brazil. One is dealing with collapse assessment of thick offshore pipelines, used in deepwater pipelines, and the other is about central control of DP tugs in floater positioning.
“Several international companies have established research centers in Brazil to take advantage of the ANP research levy on oil and gas revenues. It is expected that a significant power shift will take place in those companies in favor of more autonomy to the Brazilian subsidiaries in terms of allocation of research funds. This will certainly go in favor of the establishment of more JIPs launched and conducted from Brazil”, Mr. Imperial says, and continues:
“The Rio R&D Center will serve as a catalyzer for the development of new JIPs with greater participation of DNV GL personnel in Brazil.”
Luiz Fernando Oliveira, a risk and reliability engineer with 35 years of experience, has been assigned to lead the new R&D Center. He is recognized as one of the top Brazilian specialists in his areas of expertise, and holds MSc and PhD degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked from 1989 to 1992 as a Professor at UFRJ, where he taught and conducted research in various areas. He came to DNV GL in 2000, and is also the author of more than 100 papers.
Source: DNV GL
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