STRATHCLYDE university scientists have won funding to help develop a revolutionary ‘biogrout’ it is thought could slash the cost of decommissioning North Sea oil and gas wells.

The government-backed Oil and Gas Technology Centre has highlighted the potential to use the grout to repair and strengthen the cement barriers used to help seal up wells that have been plugged and abandoned.

The grout is produced using enzymes. The technology centre noted: “Its low viscosity and nanoparticle size enables it to penetrate and seal the smallest of spaces.”

Developed at the department of civil and environmental engineering at Strathclyde university, the grout is one of four ideas that will share £1.3m funding from the technology centre.

Technologies developed by Heriot Watt university and oil services firms BiSn and Baker Hughes will also receive funding.

The centre said the four ideas could have a transformational impact on well decommissioning. Some 1,400 wells are forecast to be abandoned on the United Kingdom Continental Shelf over the next decade at a cost of around £7 billion.

The centre received 48 submissions after calling in May for ideas to transform the plugging and abandonment process. It was founded in 2016 under the drive to help oil and gas firms meet the challenges posed by the crude price slump.

Lecturer Dr Gráinne El Mountassir said Strathclyde university had been working on the development of Biogrout as a technology for civil engineering applications over seven years and was keen to apply its knowledge to the oil and gas environment.