STAVANGER, NORWAY, May 16, 2011 – Nine of the world’s leading oil and gas companies – BG Group, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Petrobras, Shell, Statoil and Total – are today announcing the launch of the Subsea Well Response Project (SWRP), an initiative designed to enhance the industry’s capability to respond to subsea well control incidents.
Acting on the recommendations of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers’ (OGP) Global Industry Response Group (GIRG) the companies have signed an Interim Joint Development Agreement, with Shell as the operator.
The project team will:
The SWRP participants have appointed Keith Lewis, former Vice President of Front-End Studies for Shell in the Americas, as manager of the project.
“OGP [GIRG] has brought forward a comprehensive set of recommendations for intervention on flowing wells following a well control incident. SWRP will now work to deliver on these objectives over the course of 2011. Designing systems that can be deployed effectively in different regions of the world is an immense challenge but member companies have assigned leading specialists to the task,” Lewis said.
The Subsea Well Response Project (SWRP) is a not-for-profit joint initiative, and the project team consists of technical experts and senior management from nine of the major oil companies. SWRP’s objective is to manage the selection and design of caps and associated equipment to enhance industry capabilities to respond to well control incidents, and recommend a model for international storage, maintenance and deployment of this equipment. SWRP is operated by Shell, on behalf of the nine member companies, and its headquarters is in Stavanger, Norway.
This new project complements the work that is being undertaken in the US, via the Marine Well Containment Company, and in the UK via the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Advisory Group.