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Trondheim company monitors oil and gas wells

The start-up company RESMAN AS, a SINTEF and IFE spin-off, will produce chemical intelligent materials to monitor flows in oil and gas wells. The whole process will take place without the use of cables.

RESMAN was established with the active support of Statoil Innovation AS, and its technology will efficiently remove uncertainties regarding what actually happens in oil and gas wells: What is flowing where, how much is flowing, and how does the flow develop over time?

Operators will obtain a better understanding of the physics of underground formations and thus a basis for optimizing oil and gas recovery.

The oil companies work continuously on the development of new technologies and methods that can provide them with more information from oil and gas reservoirs. The traditional method has been to drop cable-based measurement instruments down into the well. A natural development was to install the instruments permanently in the well in order to obtain an enhanced picture of the changes in the flows. It is in this area that both IFE and SINTEF, in collaboration with Norwegian and international oil companies, have been working on the development of permanent, reliable and competitive technologies. Several patents have been granted, and a license from Norsk Hydro on some of their tracer technology completes the technology basis for RESMAN AS.

The chemical intelligent materials are based on polymers that react with their surroundings by releasing tracer elements. By distributing the polymer units throughout the well and ensuring that the tracer elements are recognized when they migrate to the surface, operators can obtain valuable information about flow in the formation, and how the flow evolves over time.

RESMAN will be entering a huge global market, and current market contacts indicate a high level of interest in its product in several countries. The company has been set up by two entrepreneurs, Fridtjof Nyhavn from SINTEF Petroleum Research and Anne Dalager Dyrli from SINTEF Materials and Chemistry. Apart from the founders, shareholders in the new company include SINTEF Venture, IFE and Statoil Innovation AS.

Contact persons: Fridtjof Nyhavn, tel: +47 9167 1331 or Anne D. Dyrli, tel: +47 9167 1332