ABB/StatoilHydro article on TAIL IO project honored by ISA

Houston, Texas, October 28, 2008 – ISA (the International Society of Automation) recently recognized ABB and customer StatoilHydro for co-authoring best article published in InTech magazine this year. The 2008 Keith Otto award, announced at ISA Expo 2008 in Houston earlier this month, honored authors Trond Michael Anderson (StatoilHydro), Svein Vatland and Paula Doyle (ABB) and for their article “Oil Company of the Future.” (online version is at www.isa.org/intech/20080401)

InTech’s editorial staff selected the April 2008 cover story to receive the prestigious Keith Otto award as the best article published in the magazine over the past year. The article describes StatoilHydro’s innovative TAIL IO (Integrated Operations) technology consortium project. The award is named for Keith Otto, who served on numerous ISA boards and was Chair of InTech’s advisory board for many years.

“Oil Company of the Future” describes StatoilHydro’s TAIL IO R&D partnership project. This collaborative consortium continues to develop technology, processes and knowledge to integrate StatoilHydro’s operations and increase production, cut operating and maintenance costs, reduce health, safety and environmental incidents, and prolong the life of its oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

As its name suggests, TAIL IO is aimed initially at improving operations at fields approaching the end of their life-spans. Tail-end production is a major challenge facing all oil and gas companies. It is the stage where the production rate is declining, the facilities are aging, and operation costs are high.

TAIL IO also consists of a number of leading-edge subprojects that range across a broad range of technologies - from wireless communications and sensor systems to robotics and mobile ICT – and have the ultimate objective of protecting critical assets, improving productivity and safety, and preventing shutdowns. All of these activities have great potential to improve operations for other oil and gas companies going forward.

ABB’s Process Automation division delivers integrated solutions for control, plant optimization, and industry-specific application knowledge and services to help process industry customers worldwide meet their critical business needs in the areas of operational profitability, capital productivity, risk management and global responsibility. These industries include oil and gas, power, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pulp and paper, metals, minerals, marine and turbocharging.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 120,000 people.