ACTI Background
The following text was taken from portions of a brochure printed by the US Department of Energy. This brochure is dated May 1994.
A high technology approach to develop, enhance, and apply advanced exploration, production and processing technologies - helping producers lower finding and development costs.
ACTI
The Advanced Computational Technology Initiative Program is designed to enhance, apply and transfer technologies developed within the National Laboratories to promote the competitiveness of domestic natural gas and oil companies, and to decrease the Nation's dependance on foriegn oil.
The initiative will contribute to strengthening the technology leadership of the United States natural gas and oil industry in exploration, production and processing.
The ACTI Program will be driven by the needs of the domestic industry and will consist of collaborative projects identified as high priorities by industry participants. The projects will be funded by Department of Energy and leveraged by industry cost sharing (50 percent).
What is ACTI?
- A cost-shared partnership between industry and government to focus research, development, and technology transfer efforts in industry-identified areas which will increase domestic natural gas and oil production through the addition of new proven reserves.
- A full spectrum of activites ranging from basic research through development, demonstration and deployment of new technologies will full industry participation and leadership at all stages.
- An opportunity to bring advanced capabilities from DOE's National Laboratories to bear in areas critical to the competitiveness of industry and the Nation in partnership with researchers in the natural gas and oil industry.
- A component of DOE's portfolio addressing the Domestic Natural Gas and Oil Initiative of the the Administration.
What is to Be Done Under ACTI?
A Partnership Industry Steering Committee will formulate an ACTI strategic plan to ensure that research, development and demonstration activites meet the needs of the industry and contribute to maintaining the US leadership in the technology area.
The program will seek improved and more economical ways to produce domestic natural gas and oil, including identifying, characterizing, and interpreting the geologic formations that make up domestic reservoirs. Both the service industry and producers are anticipated to benefit.
The program will build upon current US industry leadership to enhance and integrate current technologies from the National Laboratories to provide a foundation for future technologies. Although this process is just begninning, some elements have emerged, including:
- Computational Technology (data storage, communication and manipulation, supercomputing, massively parallel processing, workstation computing environments).
- Reservoir and Geologic Modeling (fluid flow and extraction rates, reservoir characterization, optimum life-cycle production, and basin evolution and mechanics); and
- Geophysical Imaging (2-D and 3-D seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation).
How Does ACTI Work?
Research, development, and demonstration proposals will be prepared in response to an annual announcement in professional society journals, the Commerce Business Daily, and the Federal Register. The topical areas, criteria for selection, and proposal evaluation process will be given in the announcements. The topical areas will be consisten with recommendations of the Industry Steering Committee.
Proposals will be jointly prepared by industry and National Laboratory participants in each of the prospective research patnerships. Industry and/or the National Laboratories can partner with universities or other research institutions. The proposals will be submitted to the Partnership Office, comprised of National Laboratory representatives, for review. Proposals will then be evaluated and prioritized by the Industry Review Panel. The DOE Management Group will make the final selection and funding decisions.