Technology Development Journey of Deepwater Technologies Portfolio Available to Purchase

In order to meet the challenges of today's evolving oil and gas industry, it is imperative to develop new technologies that can support harsher operational environments such as producing in deepwater safely & reliably. Additionally, the current product price environment adds more complexity and cost challenges to successfully developing new technologies. One of Chevron's key strategies is to differentiate performance through technology. Technology development is performed to reduce uncertainty as well as the risk associated with new technologies. By analysing the system into subsystems and/or components, the risk associated with each new component can be determined and evaluated. Emphasis is placed on subsystems and components with the highest degree of uncertainty because this offers the greatest opportunity for risk reduction. Technology development activities support the company's worldwide operations and major capital projects by developing and deploying technology solutions that drive business growth and efficiency. Chevron's Deepwater business unit is utilizing a portfolio development approach for maturing technologies for a range of Deepwater projects while maintaining enough flexibility to cater to specific project technology requirements. Using a portfolio approach enables better understanding of technology needs and timing, assessment of its current state, and development strategies. The focus of this paper is to describe a process to cost effectively advance a portfolio of technologies for use in offshore deepwater applications. This paper will provide some limited examples to demonstrate the fit-for-purpose technology development approach and tools (i.e. technology gap brainstorm workshop) for technology management in a major capital project environment. In addition, development strategies and lessons learned while managing one of the largest and diverse Deepwater technology portfolios (topsides, subsea and subsurface technologies) will be discussed.