Moohyun Kim – Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Overview of proposed approach: digital twin plus machine learning for real-time underwater-line monitoring
Digital twin: FPSO with mooring lines and steel lazy-wave risers
Fabricated physical unit
Highlights:
Acknowledgements:
Prof. Byul Hur (CoPI) contributed to the fabrication of the physical unit. ExxonMobil provided relevant measured current and FPSO data.
Erna Grelle – Argonne National Laboratory
Highlights:
The focus of this project was to evaluate the possibility of using OTEC to power monitoring systems for plugged and abandoned (PA) wells in the Gulf of America. Currently, there is no requirement for monitoring PA wells after their decommissioning is complete, which has raised concerns about potential unabated methane leakage from these wells. At the same time, powering a monitoring system is not trivial since the waters on the Gulf of America are not connected to the power grid, necessitating an alternative approach. This study considered marine energy resources, well locations, and monitoring system power requirements, and aimed to design a monitoring scheme powered by OTEC. Additionally, the study considered possibilities in which OTEC can supply power to offshore oil and gas platforms.
Acknowledgements:
The research team would like to acknowledge the time and helpful feedback of the OESI Joint Steering Committee and project management team members. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the numerous people across companies, universities, government, and fellow national labs for their generous time in providing input on various aspects throughout this study.
Mohsen Ahmadian, Mahdi Haddad – University of Texas – Austin
Engineered defective P&A wells, designed and constructed by Dr. Ahmadian’s team at UT-Austin BEG/AEC’s DGTS, were used to demonstrate their novel EM-SP survey concept at TRL 6.
Dr. Mahdi Haddad (co-PI) and Kemal Ozel (Student research scholar) at the data-acquisition and pump station during the final field test.
Highlights:
Great news for our planet! A team of researchers, led by Drs. Mohsen Ahmadian (PI) and Mahdi Haddad (co-PI) at the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin), with a $500K OESI grant, including a >20% cost match from the Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), has developed a novel and noninvasive electromagnetic (EM) survey method to detect hidden leaks from plugged-and-abandoned (P&A) wells.
The P&A wells are meant to be permanently sealed, but sometimes they fail, posing risks to land and water. This team engineered a special approach that uses natural flow-induced electrical signals in the ground and surface sensing to identify when leaks occur! Thanks to OESI and AEC funding, and Dr. Ahmadian’s management of UT-Austin BEG’s Devine Geophysical Test Site (DGTS), the team demonstrated this concept at field scale with a limited budget and in about a year! This involved constructing two engineered defective P&A wells to validate the team’s patent-pending technology under real-world conditions rigorously.
This breakthrough enables efficient and cost-effective remote monitoring of numerous wells, proactively minimizing environmental hazards. By cleverly integrating Streaming Potential (SP) data with traditional EM modeling, these researchers achieved unprecedented accuracy in identifying leaks when they were induced by DGTS. This technology represents a significant advancement in our ability to safeguard the environment during carbon storage and energy production. The team has applied for an extension of the grant from OESI and is looking forward to furthering this very exciting and significant work.
Acknowledgements:
The project team gratefully acknowledge the OESI at Texas A&M University for granting this project and AEC* at the Bureau of Economic Geology for funding the establishment of the AEC’s Devine Fracture Pilot Site. Special thanks to Drs. Lindsey Heagy, Roman Shekhtman, and Doug Oldenburg at the University of British Columbia for their work in implementing our novel numerical workflow in the E3D code. We also appreciate Dr. Aaron Wanjie Fang’s dedication to the EM-SP field data acquisition and reporting, Muhammed Kemal Ozel’s contributions to field and lab experiment design, construction, and data acquisition, Dr. Jakub Felkl’s work on stakeholder feedback, and Wildan Noori’s efforts with the EM laboratory experiments.
*For more information about the AEC, please visit https://www.beg.utexas.edu/aec/news.
Sivaramakrishnan Balachander – University of Florida
Highlights:
This project addressed the challenge of capturing the complex, turbulent flow around offshore cables connected to monopiles, a key factor in predicting cable stress and failure. Resolving this chaotic flow is vital for estimating instantaneous hydrodynamic forces. Traditionally, simulating many flow scenarios is computationally costly. Our unique contribution is a novel modeling framework that explores a wide range of environmental and geometric conditions at a fraction of the cost. This enables accurate estimates of average and peak hydrodynamic loads on cables, offering critical insights for assessing long-term cable integrity and reducing failure risk in offshore wind systems.
Acknowledgements:
The project team recognizes significant contributions from the following individuals: Irvin Velazquez (UTRGV), KA Krishnaprasad (UF), Cai Ferguson, Claire McGhee, and David Hoyal (AtkinsRéalis), Nadim Zgheib (UTRGV), and S. Balachandar (UF).
Ole Rygg – Add Energy, ABL Group
Picture from the Toll developed in the project
Highlights:
The focus of this project was to develop a standardized methodology for analyzing the consequences of offshore well blowouts to improve risk measurement and mitigation in the oil and gas industry. By addressing existing gaps in current blowout contingency planning practices, the project sought to create a structured framework that operators can use to better prepare for and respond to potential blowout scenarios. Key areas of study included relief well feasibility, subsea capping strategies, oil spill response, and the development of a Blowout Preparedness Screening Tool (BPST).
OESI funding played a critical role in enabling this work by supporting the collaboration of subject matter experts, facilitating comprehensive research, and ensuring the delivery of a robust set of tools and guidelines. This support helped ensure the integration of best practices, historical data, and simulation capabilities into a practical, risk-based decision-making tool.
What makes this project impactful and unique is its exclusive focus on the consequence side of blowout events—an area often underrepresented in well planning. By offering a standardized, scalable solution for blowout consequence assessment, the project empowers operators to enhance their preparedness and reduce the environmental, financial, and reputational impacts of offshore well control incidents.
Acknowledgements:
The project team would like to acknowledge our partner WellCRTL Engineering, Houston, Texas for contributing to this project.
HeonYong Kang – Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station
Highlights:
The offshore oil and gas sector is urgently seeking local power solutions for marginal fields, where umbilicals—the most widely used power supply method—are not economically viable. Wave Energy Converters (WECs) present a competitive alternative for serving as remote power stations. As a renewable energy source, WECs produce zero carbon emissions. Through this project, we developed 81 use cases where kW-scale WECs can support offshore oil and gas operations, providing local power and transferring data onshore. Each use case includes power requirement and is associated with at least one and up to six OEMs. Additionally, use cases are categorized by operation prevalence and lifecycle stages of the oil gas fields. For the offshore sector, this allows leaseholders to readily select desirable use cases based on their fields’ current lifecycles and assess uncertainty based on operation prevalence. With power requirements and OEMs specified, system operators/providers can identify applicable use cases and integrate renewable energy into their systems. For the WEC sector, companies can co-develop new products with OEMs or contact leaseholders directly to power their existing subsea assets. This project bridges the needs of both sectors—introducing a kW-scale remote power solution to offshore oil gas sector and uncovering new commercial deployment opportunities for WEC sector, offering a fresh perspective on how WECs can be integrated into offshore oil and gas operations.
Acknowledgements:
The project team would like to acknowledge Oceaneering for providing valuable insights into autonomous underwater vehicles.
Yuanhang Chen – Louisiana State University
Highlights:
The project developed and field‑tested an integrated framework that unifies three state‑of‑the‑art real‑time gas kick detection and profiling methods—physics‑based data assimilation (DA) for continuous influx estimation, distributed fiber‑optic sensing (DFOS) for high‑resolution wellbore monitoring, and a Bayesian network with change‑point analysis (CP‑BN) for early anomaly recognition—into a single decision‑support platform. This multi‑method system was rigorously validated at LSU’s PERTT Lab full‑scale well facility and using state-of-art drilling simulator platform, achieving false‑alarm rates below 3%, detection times under 30 seconds across diverse drilling scenarios .
OESI funding was instrumental in bringing together academic researchers and industry partners—Blade Energy Partners and Intellicess—while underwriting access to advanced testbeds, specialized fiber‑optic sensor arrays, and high‑fidelity simulation environments. This support also enabled targeted workshops and surveys that refined an updated Offshore Loss of Well Control (LOWC) leading‑indicator set, tailored for contemporary offshore operations.
By unifying complementary technologies into a cohesive solution, our platform offers a first‑of‑its‑kind, holistic approach to well‑control risk management implemented with a new LOWC leading indicator system. Controlled simulations confirmed their resilience across diverse scenarios—from deepwater high‑pressure risers to complex formation integrity tests—and its modular design means future measurement innovations can be plugged in seamlessly. With faster insights and fewer false alarms, operators can safeguard people, protect the environment, and keep offshore energy flowing safely into the future.
Acknowledgements:
The project team gratefully acknowledges the contributions and valuable feedback provided by Pedro Sousa and Alexa Gonzalez Luis from Blade Energy Partners, Ltd., as well as the contributions from all industry panel discussion participants. In addition, we also thank and acknowledge all collaborators at Louisiana State University who participated/supported this project: Otto Santos, Mauricio A. Almeida, Mahendra Kunju, and Douglas Hoy.
Kevin McSweeney – American Bureau of Shipping
Highlights:
Acknowledgements:
ABS: Kevin McSweeney, Whitney Mantooth, Suqin Wang, Lauren Sparks
E-Wave Technologies: Jason Lou
University of Michigan: Paul Green
Hydrokinetic Energy Corp.: Walter Schurtenberger
Bluewater Network LLC: Bill Staby
