The School of Engineering has agreed a research contract with ITI Energy for the first phase of a ground breaking research project
The programme could be worth up to £4.6million invested by ITI Energy.
Resonance Enhanced Drilling (RED) could significantly reduce well bore creation time in hard formations and deliver the capability to drill with one bit through differing conditions. RED was invented by Professor Marian Wiercigroch from the School of Engineering.
Alan Lowdon, director of R&D at ITI Energy said: "The RED programme has the potential to establish a radically new way of drilling oil wells.
The RED programme will involve six academics, a technician, four research fellows and five PhD students at the School of Engineering.