LOOP funding
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ETV's LOOP programme provides project specific funding, technical advisory and planning for first use of the technology in our operations.
Companies applying for LOOP funding must be developing technology that can be implemented and contribute to improving Equinor’s operations. The project must be well defined, the technology/concept patented or otherwise protected, and the project team must have a track record in technology development, proving the ability to deliver results.
ETV's LOOP programme provides project specific funding, technical advisory and planning for first use of the technology in our operations. A typical LOOP program normally consists of:
- Total project cost of USD 0,2 – 2 million per LOOP project, where ETV can provide up to 50% of the funding.
- Project period 1 - 3 years
- In return, ETV requires royalty of the product’s annual turnover
Since the beginning in 1991, LOOP has provided over 600 MNOK of funding to support more than 260 companies and technologies, and we are actively looking for new LOOP projects!
The LOOP contribution has triggered almost three times as much in total overall project funding. The success rate is high: Over 75% of the LOOP technologies hit the market and over 600 new jobs have been created. In many cases LOOP projects form the first interaction between a company and ETV, which can often grow into long term relationships where ETV eventually takes an ownership stake in the company.
LOOP portfolio
Eelume AS
NTNU spin-off company Eelume collaborates with Kongsberg Maritime and Equinor to develop swimming robots for subsea inspection and light intervention. The idea is to let these robots do inspection and light intervention jobs on the seabed, reducing the use of large and expensive vessels. Eelume robots will be permanently installed on the seabed and will perform planned and on-demand inspections and interventions. The strength of the collaboration lies in the unique contributions from each of the parties. Eelume is founded by top academics from NTNU, Kongsberg Maritime brings in 25 years of experience and technology development within marine robotics and Equinor provides access to real installations for testing and qualification.
www.eelume.com
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Segment: Facilities
Exedra AS
Stavanger start-up Exedra has developed a new solution for verification of barriers intended for slot recovery or permanent P&A of wells. Exedra’s idea is to introduce a novel P&A verification method, by applying a tracer gas below the barrier that is to be tested. The tracer gas (Helium) will provide a sensitivity approximately 1000 times higher than today’s conventional pressure method. The introduction of an unambiguous, fast and sensitive verification method will pave the way for more cost efficient P&A solutions.
Yearly Equinor perform 60 – 70 slot recovery operations where old wells are re-used by placing barriers in the old well tracks and sidetracked. Equinor also have a portfolio of 1300+ wells that eventually need to be efficiently permanently plugged by verified well barriers. This type of technology will allow safe and efficient plugging of old wells.
www.exedra.no
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Segment: Drilling & Well
Grip Offshore AS
Grip is developing an electric manipulator (arm) to be used on a Work class Remotely Operated Vehicle (WROV). The company’s standardized smart actuator will form the robotic joints. The electrical manipulator will have seven degrees of freedom and have a design similar to Schillings' Titan 4. The electrical manipulator will have motion control capabilities that are superior to its hydraulic counterpart.
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Segment: Facilities
Hybond AS
The Hybond technology is a cold-welding technology for aluminium where solid aluminium is supplied to the groove between plates using continuous extrusion. This allows for cheaper and more light weight constructions maintaining the strength of the material, while traditional welding reduce the material strength with up to 50 %.
www.hybond.no
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Segment: Facilities
HYDROPHILIC AS
Hydrophilic is developing a downhole tool that will reduce exploration and appraisal costs significantly by identifying the hydrocarbon-water contact without the need for drilling through it. This is achieved by measuring the capillary pressure, the difference between the hydrocarbon phase and the water pressure in the thin water film surrounding the sand grains in reservoirs. In addition, the Hydrophilic technology will contribute to lower CO2 emissions due to reduced drilling operations as fewer wells will be required to achieve the objectives.
www.hydrophilic.no
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Segment: Reservoir / Exploration & Production
Icon Instruments AS
The objective of this project is to develop an instrumented tubular plug (ITP) with wireless communication. The ITP will reduce cost related to "dry" wellhead operations by eliminating the need for wireline mobilization and rig-up for securing of the well.
www.industrialcontrols.no
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Segment: Drilling & Well
NESH Inc.
Houston based Startup Nesh has reimagined how Oil and Gas Software should be and created the Smart Assistant for Oil and Gas. Nesh helps Oil and Gas companies make better and faster decisions by organizing the collective knowledge within the company and make it effortlessly accessible. Nesh can connect to public and proprietary data and lets the user query and analyze the data by simply asking a question to the conversational AI. Imagine if Siri or Alexa went to school, got an advanced degree in Petroleum Engineering and Geoscience, then went to work in the Oilfield for several years, attended technical conferences, read journals and books; you'll have Nesh.
www.hellonesh.io
Location: Houston, TX
Segment: IFN
Rocsole OY
Rocsole is developing an intelligent inline inspection sensor (smart pig) based on electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) technology, with capabilities to identify, quantify and differentiate depositions of wax, hydrates, scale and asphaltenes in pipelines. The unique value proposition of the technology, is the ability to pull a sensor string behind an inspection pig, thus allowing identification and measurement of deposits along the full length of a pipeline.
www.rocsole.com
Location: Kuopio, Finland and Houston, US
Segment: Facilities
SCOUT DRONE INSPECTION AS
Scout Drone Inspection seeks to automate and digitize indoor industrial inspection, for better quality, increased safety and reduced cost. The company is developing a highly autonomous Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), or drone, that will provide a complete visual inspection and non-destructive testing (NDT) solution for GPS-denied and poorly lit environments, such as inside tanks and other confined spaces or outdoors in proximity to large structures. The solution also includes cloud data services for inspection planning, reporting and data analytics.
www.scoutdi.com
Location: Trondheim
Segment: Facilities
QWAVE AS
qWave is developing a technology for creating perforations in the wellbore to aid in conventional perforation, stimulation and formation testing. qWave creates the perforations through focused acoustic shockwaves, a method that has been applied in medicine for the removal of kidney stones for almost 40 years. The technology will allow for cost efficient data gathering to increase subsurface understanding.
www.qwave.no
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Segment: Formation evaluation / Rock mechanics
NORSE OILTOOLS AS
The objective of this project is to develop a downhole magnetic cleaning tool designed to be used during casing window milling operations and/or clean-up runs. The tool will collect all magnetic debris generated in the same run, thereby saving time and cost as well as protecting the BOP and surface equipment.
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Segment: Drilling and well