Portuguese PI – Ramiro Neves (Técnico)
CMU PI – Michael Griffin (CMU; EPP)
PI – Scott Matthews (CMU; CEE)
Research teams: Carnegie Mellon University (CMU); Associação do Instituto Superior Técnico para a Investigação e o Desenvolvimento (IST-ID); Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação, Tecnologia e Inovação (ARDITI); Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI)
Organizations: Action Modulers (AM); Centro para a Excelência e Inovação na Indústria Automóvel (CEIIA); Estrutura de Missão para os Assuntos do Mar (EMAM); Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade (ISQ); Organização Nacional da Indústria do Petróleo (ONIP); Lusotechnip Engenharia, Sociedade Unipessoal, Lda (TECHNIP); Petróleos de Portugal – PETROGAL, SA (PETROGAL/Galp-E); Steinbeis Advanced Risk Technologies (R-Tech); Wavec/Offshore Renewables – Centro De Energia Offshore (WAVEC)
Funding Reference: CMUP-ERI/TIC/0045/2014
Duration: 48 months
Keywords: Sustainable oil and gas industry; South Atlantic and Sub-Saharan Africa; Offshore industry; Technological innovation opportunities
“The project is very forward-looking. By anticipating the potential of new technologies one can take advantage of natural resource production, optimizing the extraction and use, while minimizing the environmental impacts. That is exactly what this project is designed to do.”
Ramiro Neves and Mike Griffin
The goals of this project are fourfold: to promote an International Observatory, “OIPG – South Atlantic”, to stimulate participatory risk governance activities, to support the design of public policies and to suggest pathways for sustainable industrial development fostering endogenous development of the Atlantic region. The project is specifically focused on improving our understanding of new innovation dynamics and technology-based services for offshore and oil & gas sustainable industries in the South Atlantic, Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa regions.
The proposed research includes case studies to determine the impact of emerging opportunities for data monitoring, environmental protection, risk governance, and understanding the impact of oil and gas supply chains. Of special interest are subsea technologies (such as submarine drilling and energy supply; submarine robotics, and submarine processing units), the construction of new and specialized platforms support vessels integrating renewable off-shore energy, the development of reliable onshore gas exploration processes, and the development of strategies designed to minimize health, safety, and environmental risks across all elements of the these systems. This research is expected to inform implementation strategy roadmaps for new technology-based business ventures, job opportunities, and demand-side policy measures with the objective to increasing the markets for innovations in the offshore-related industries and sectors, with emphasis on the new geopolitical conditions for the Atlantic.
Initially, the focus will be on the Brazilian pre-salt but ultimately the goal is to discuss new and emerging opportunities in four major areas:
i) subsea technologies and related business ventures;
ii) platform support vessels, including opportunities for building and developing new, medium-sized, support vessels for oil exploration in the south Atlantic;
iii) sustainable ports and the necessary industrial-base for endogenous local developments and
iv) risk governance.
