A Scottish technology company has announced a major step towards the mass production of small unmanned oil platforms, which it believes can dramatically reduce the cost of operating marginal offshore fields.
Unmanned Production Buoy said on Monday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the engineering arm of Chinese oil major Cnooc for the manufacture of shells and components for its buoy-based system.
Under the agreement – signed during a trip to China by Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister – Cnooc’s engineering arm Offshore Oil Engineering (Zuhai) is to build 100 shells and components that will then be shipped to a Scottish fabrication yard for assembly and fit out.