The next phase for the National Oilwell Varco (NOV) subsea oil storage technology is a joint industry project due to start later this year for large-scale testing of the system in realistic operating conditions, writes Beate Schjolberg.
The plan is to find a suitable dock, probably in Norway, and submerge a subsea storage unit (SSU) of between 250 and 500 cubic metres, considerably larger than the 3 cubic-metre tanks used to test various membrane qualities and the oil-ventilation system in a trial that is now drawing to a close.
