Wave power firm Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) has formed a strategic alliance with HAI Technologies, with an initial plan to work together on offshore oil and gas subsea chemical injection systems, where persistent power and real-time data communications are critical.
The idea is to combine Houston-headquartered HAI's subsea chemical injection system and New Jersey-based OPT's buoy based wave energy technology, PB3 PowerBuoy, to deal with long distance and remote offshore field developments.
"We believe combining subsea chemical injection components with a local surface power system such as the PB3, is a new subsea architecture reducing field development cost, and potentially making an impractical field now practical,” says Dan Krohn, HAI Technologies general manager.
“Chemical injection techniques are used to mitigate the diminishing effects of buildup in piping and pumping systems used in subsea oil production operations. HAI has developed an innovative, compact and modular approach which moves the chemical injection system closer to the production field.
"We believe HAI Technologies’ advanced chemical injection solutions, combined with OPT’s PB3 PowerBuoy, creates a unique opportunity to pair two distinctive offshore technologies creating new methods to deal with long distance and remote offshore field developments.
OPT’s PB3 PowerBuoy is a reliable and persistent power and communication platform for remote offshore applications such as advanced multi-functional sensors, modular chemical injection systems for subsea oil production operations, and docking stations for subsea robotics.
End-users can apply the PB3 to a suite of mission critical payloads while extending their range of operation, lowering their operational costs, and enabling real-time data transfer and decision making.