The GCE Ocean Technology Cluster

The combined and varied experience and operational expertise of the industrial players, supporting businesses and the R&D and educational institutions make GCE Ocean Technology a global knowledge hub within the ocean industries.

The GCE Ocean Technology cluster contains partners and members who are world leaders within in the fields of operating, maintaining and modifying subsea equipment in order to recover more oil and gas from the reservoirs. However, the cluster has evolved in to including many actors operating within the wider sphere of the ocean industries.

Location

The cluster is located at Vitensenteret in Bergen city and at the Coast Center Base (CCB) at Ågotnes west of Bergen. 

Vitensenteret at Marineholmen offers a mixed environment of entrepreneurs, ocean clusters, corporates, academia, researchers and more.

CCB is housing several ocean industry actors. CCB itself is offering logistics services, mobilisation and demobilisation, for ships and special vessels. CCB has a modern machine park that covers all needs within base and port operations. They also supply shore power to vessels and rigs. By having our offices at CCB we have easy access to many of our partners and members like TechnipFMC, Akers Solutions, KYMSOL and more.

World-Class Expertise

The cluster represents world-class expertise within a range of subsea-related disciplines such as:

•Enhanced recovery of oil & gas through life-of-field services and supply of subsea equipment
•Operation and development of the largest subsea fields globally in terms of number of subsea wells
•Design and engineering of subsea equipment
•Advanced subsea multi-phase and single-phase pumps and compressors
•Advanced subsea instrumentation and sensor technology
•Subsea equipment such as umbilicals, flowlines, connectors, valves, etc.
•Fabrication of subsea equipment
•Meteorology, oceanography and the marine environment

Industrial Centres of Excellence

Some of the larger GCE Ocean Technology companies host industrial centers of excellence.

OneSubsea’s global hub of expertise for subsea processing solutions is located in Bergen, based on Framo Engineering which was acquired by OneSubsea in 2013. OneSubsea, a joint venture between Schlumberger and Cameron, is a global company with more than 6 000 employees.

NUI in Bergen operates the center for hyperbaric emergencies, with unique facilities for receiving hyperbaric life boats carrying divers needing hyperbaric treatment.

TechnipFMC’s base at Ågotnes is a regional headquarters for the Customer Support organisation. It acts as point-of-contact for engineering services, personnel, products and tools needed for installation and life-of-field operations related to subsea wells, and holds operational responsibility for bases in Angola, Australia, Canada, Scotland, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria. TechnipFMC is a global company with more than 19 000 employees.

Key Educational Establishments

The cluster has a well-developed and wide-ranging R&D community. Major educational establishments such as the University of Bergen, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and BI Norwegian Business School are leading centers of expertise with strong international links.

The University of Bergen covers all academic disciplines and has a particularly strong international standing within marine sciences, climate research, oceanography, meteorology and instrumentation.

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences is a bachelor level educational institution including all engineering topics. It also offers MSc-level education within some engineering disciplines.

BI Norwegian Business School - Campus Bergen is located at Marineholmen, in the heart of the marine research and education environment in Bergen.

Wide-ranging R&D Community

The key R&D organisations in the cluster are NORCE, Institute of Marine Research and SINTEF.

NORCE is a new and forward-looking research institute, with expertise in a wide range of fields and strong communities of knowledge. We deliver research and innovation in energy, health care, climate, the environment, society and technology. Our solutions address key challenges for society and contribute to value creation on the local, national and global levels.

The Institute of Marine Research is Norway’s largest center of marine science and has a position as a global leader within its field.

SINTEF is the largest independent R&D organization in Northern Europe and carries out industrial research within all engineering disciplines.

R&D Infrastructure

The educational and research institutions operate a large and varied R&D infrastructure such as subsea test sites, advanced multiphase flow rigs, facilities for pressure and temperature testing, environmental laboratories, advanced chemical laboratories for fluid characterization and dedicated experimental facilities for enhanced oil recovery.

GCE Ocean Technology is now also owner of Ocean Innovation Catapult which is a national test, simulation and visualization center for efficient prototype development and verification of new solutions for blue growth and green transition in the ocean industries.