Mon, 06 January, 2025
The Non-metallic Innovation Centre (NIC) held an ‘NIC Associates Technology Update Summit’ on 2 December, 2024.
The Summit, which took place at the NIC’s headquarters at Granta Park near Cambridge, UK, brought together technology and commercial experts from the NIC Associates, Sponsors and TWI Ltd.
The objectives of the event included to reaffirm the technology challenges faced by the oil and gas industry and provide updates on new, commercial, non-metallic solutions related to NIC programme priorities.
The Summit provided insights into current technical, market and industry trends while also offering a forum for networking between NIC Sponsors and the supply chains. The event also delivered advice on the research strategy being pursued by the NIC and topics for the next NIC Associates research project (ARP).
The day began with a welcome address from NIC Director, Dr Mihalis Kazilas, before a presentation from Dr Abderrazak Traidia and Dr Konstantinos Vatopoulos of Saudi Aramco providing an, ‘Overview of Aramco’s successful collaborations with NIC Associates – What’s next?’
A short break and networking opportunity was followed by a look at industry-wide technology opportunities, including a presentation on, ‘Integrity management of spoolable pipe: Latest technologies for inspection and condition monitoring,’ courtesy of Kirk Francis from FLEXSTEEL. This was followed by a presentation from Adriaan Goossens of Future Pipe Industries titled, ‘Collectively transitioning pipelines beyond oilfields,’ and a third presentation by NIC Associates, presented by Gilles Hochstetter from Arkema, which covered a set of developments that support deploying non-metallics in different energy applications.
The morning ended with TWI’s Dr Chris Worrall presenting on the, ‘ADNOC RTP pilot programme evaluation and support’ ahead of a networking lunch on-site. The talks continued in the afternoon with TWI’s Dr Bernadette Craster presenting on, ‘Reduction in the transport of sour gases and hydrocarbons to underlying PE-RT through thin films of PVDF.’
This was followed by a collaborative workshop dedicated to the industry-wide challenges that affect the entire non-metallic materials sector. This sets the stage for more focused discussions in the breakout groups. The themes from the workshop were investigated further in thematic group workshops designed to address challenges and opportunities in specific areas of expertise and interest, including pipes and materials.
A permeation-focused laboratory capabilities tour then allowed the attendees to get a close insight into the facilities being used by the NIC at TWI before a series of one-to-one networking meetings took place. The day concluded with closing remarks from Dr Kazilas.
We would like to thank everybody who took the time to attend the Summit and those who helped to make the event a success.