Norwegian energy giant, Statoil, has joined a group of technology developers in designing an advanced environmental monitoring system for offshore installations. The contract is worth around £16 million, with Statoil providing nearly half of the funding for the project.

Statoil says there are currently no monitoring methods that are integrated and enable physical, biological and chemical data to be measured during operations.

Karl Johnny Hersvik, head of Statoil R&D said: “Environmental monitoring is essential for Statoil in order to achieve its target of zero harmful discharges. If we succeed in taking environmental monitoring from being a separate task to become an integrated part of daily production, we will achieve even safer operations and reduced costs. This will represent a quantum leap for offshore environmental monitoring.”

Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies will head the consortium which includes Kongsberg Maritime Subsea, IBM and DNV.