If the money gushes

AT THE GATES OF A BILLION-DOLLAR BUSINESS

A development can redefine the production technology of oil wells.

What is the connection between an Egyptian holiday and a promising Hungarian R&D project? Nothing at first sight, but Viktor Tábor business owner took part in a diving instructor course together with Péter Bajcsi. Here Viktor Tábor entrepreneur has met a development which can subvert even the huge oil production business. The basis of the invention is connected to Róbert and Tamás Bozsó, whose legal representative is Péter Bajcsi, so this way the entrepreneur and inventor-team has come into contact. The essence of the invention is a laser – with a little exaggeration almost as strong as the one you know from Star Wars – , which is able to purge the oil extracting pipes, even if they are clogged thousands of meters under the surface.

The idea is not newborn. The results of the Bozsó brothers’ developments – special laser equipments used in entertainment – are produced in Ballószög near Kecskemét for such firms as Universal Studios or Disney, and fortunately they have so many orders, they can hardly fulfill. Half a year ago the Bozsó brothers made a hole on the wall of their workshop when they tried out a new laser with enormous energy density. (The capacity of the laser diodes are doubled in every two years such as processor capacity of computers.) Their fantasy immediately started working on the possible form of uses of this star wars device (25,000 times stronger than the little laser pointers). Besides the obvious military use, they thought about geothermal drillings, where Hungary has main advantage. They have learned that removing the rather aggressive minerals, which are subsided inside the drill pipes, is still not resolved, because they are much harder than the drill bits, which are made of special alloy. ‘There is a huge need for this technology during geothermal and oil well drills, since lots of wells are not producing because of these problems’ said Viktor Tábor. As the economic responsible of the project he thinks the business potential is huge. Currently they are negotiating with the greatest companies of the industry, who are operating about 500 wells, which have to be cleaned and restarted. Most of them are offshore wells. In case of success we are talking about a business worth of 500 billion (!) HUF, and that is only one company. Thanks to the international conferences there is significant domestic and international interest for the presented technology. MOL Nyrt. has confirmed that they are in negotiations and are close to an agreement with the Hungarian firm, but until the end of reconciliation they do not want to comment.

There is still much to do to make the technology – started from Ballószög – successful. The financial support is satisfying: On the spring of 2012 Viktor Tábor’s firm submitted two GOP 1.1.1 tenders, which they won both, so they received almost 2 billion HUF support (nearly 1.3 billion HUF is from the Union and Hungary). The universities of Szeged, Miskolc and Gödöllő are taking part in the researches. The academic level research of the first invention was helped by dr. János Szanyi, the well-known geologist professor of Szegedi Tudományegyetem. The professor had his jaws dropped, because – however many inventors enter his door weekly – he has seen not only the enthusiasm, but the savvy too, said Viktor Tábor.

Nowadays 15-20 people are working on the development directly, and at least the same amount indirectly. Their goal is to have the process tested in real-life situations in half a year, and to finish the tests which prove its efficiency on field within a year. Now under laboratory conditions the huge laser-pipe cleaning probe works great, but it has to be tested with oil rigs too. They plan a system which is able to clean 6 meters of pipes per hour.

Viktor Tábor, owner of the IT group – they have about 100 employees – led by the ANT Kft., has joined two years ago. He and his colleges were asked for planning the controlling system of the special device, and on the other hand to help in solving the financial questions of the research project. As a business angel he also helped with money, but he has overperformed his task since he successfully managed to raise significant funds for the development.

Viktor Tábor sees three business models reasonable. First is to ask for a fixed price – at about half a million dollars – for cleaning a well. In an other scheme they will ask for a share of the production of the restarting oil well, which gives more security, guarantee for the extracting enterprises when trying out the new technology. But, if the device works perfectly in practice, there can be a third solution too: they will sell the firm and the technology to a worldwide major professional service provider. ‘Oil industry is a huge and hardcore business for real, so a Hungarian firm has little chance alone, even if it achieves the anticipated breakthrough’ explains Viktor Tábor.

Gábor Halaska

2013./39.
Column: Feltörekvők
09.26.2013.