DNV and Statoil Cooperate to Enhance Arctic Competence

Image (c) DNV

OSLO – DNV and Statoil are today launching a competence programme that aims to enhance the two organisations’ knowledge about particular Arctic challenges. “Due to Arctic-specific risks such as remoteness, darkness, ice and low temperatures, it is utterly important to take a stepwise approach in which we learn and improve from the experience gained. Our complementary roles as operator and risk-management expert in challenging environments are the best reason for sharing best practices and enhancing our own expertise,” says Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, COO DNV Norway, Finland and Russia.

The growing interest in the commercial use and exploitation of Arctic resources is driven by the high demand for energy. To be able to meet the particular Arctic challenges with sound knowledge and safe technologies, Statoil and DNV are today launching the Arctic Competence Escalator (ACE) programme. This has been developed to enhance the expertise of our own specialists and to share and improve solutions for specific Arctic issues.

“We will implement the ACE Programme as a joint effort because we have similar ambitions and backgrounds. We have a long history of successful technology collaboration. Although this is an internal programme, we aim to share our developments with the industry,” says Ørbeck-Nilssen.

“Statoil already has many years of experience of Arctic offshore operations, for example in the Barents Sea and at Newfoundland in Canada. But the Arctic is a highly diverse part of the world and operating in the more challenging areas, with longer distances, lower temperatures and ice-covered waters, may require enhanced knowledge and solutions. I hope the ACE programme will be an important driver in obtaining these. Deep insight matched with respect for the Arctic’s particular conditions will be necessary to manage the risks in this promising but sensitive part of the world,” says Morten Karlsen, head of Statoil’s Arctic Technology Research Programme.