Maths to improve oil industry efficiency

Mathematicians have devised a way to provide the oil industry with more oil and gas by making processing more efficient.

Experts from the University of Oslo said that the discovery, which was published by the Research Council of Norway, is important news for the oil industry and will help with projects in the North Sea.

Using expertise in fluid mechanics, the mathematicians identified that the use of subsea cooling systems is growing and the future of separating out water and sand is also likely to take place on the ocean floor.

As a result, the team from the University of Oslo devised a solution for making these processes more efficient at substantially lower cost.

"This is research that can help to recover more oil and gas resources in the North Sea and elsewhere. The project is further proof of how important the theoretical disciplines such as mathematics and physics often prove to be for advanced industrial activities," Ivar Bergland, project manager at Inven2, a subsidiary of the University of Oslo.