Slick recovery

The Scottish Venture Fund and Energy Ventures have provided a £2m funding boost for a technology that could aid in the recovery of stranded oil reserves.

Sigma Offshore will use the money to further develop its Smart Mooring System (SMS), which connects FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) vessels to subsea wells and pipelines.

SMS is claimed to be a cost-effective and flexible alternative to existing internal turret and mooring devices, which the group's chief executive, Alistair Dornan, said are expensive and difficult to install.

Dornan explained: 'Quite often, with other mooring systems, you have to cut off the bow of the ship, and really rebuild quite a large structure. These systems are really huge and are suited to large oil fields that can have up to as much as 70 risers these days. However, our system is mostly suited to small-to-medium fields and is relatively lightweight, easy to install and therefore a lot cheaper.'