Inorganic chemistry professor Terje Østvold has been awarded this year's Statoil research prize for his work on developing the Multiscale prediction programme.
This solution can predict possibilities for mineral deposition in production wells, processing equipment and transport pipelines.
Along with corrosion, such deposits are among the biggest problems encountered in oil production. Water out of phase with the oil can precipitate minerals on pipe walls and in reservoirs, thereby blocking the oil flow.
Prof Østvold, who works at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, has collaborated with Statoil since 1984-85 to develop the computer programme.
"Once we know the chemical composition of formation water, oil and gas, as well as pressure and temperature conditions, we can calculate deposition with a high degree of accuracy," says downhole chemistry adviser Olav Vikane in the drilling and well technology unit.
Norway's Petrotech company is responsible for marketing and sale of Multiscale under an agreement with Statoil.
According to Oddfinn Thowsen, laboratory manager at Petrotech, 31 licences have already been sold to oil companies, service contractors and research institutes in Norway, the UK, Brazil, the USA and Malaysia.
Worth NOK 150,000, the Statoil prize was awarded on 14 March at the annual Vista seminar organised by the Norwegian Academy of Sciences in Oslo.