Brussels, 03/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 3 September, the European Commission and a consortium of ten European companies headed by Shell launched the PETROBOT project, the aim of which is to create robots that can take the place of humans for inspecting pressure tanks and storage tanks used in the oil, gas and petrochemicals industry. This is lengthy, fastidious work that requires great care. The project will, for three years, involve experts from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden as well as from Norway, Switzerland and Germany. The EU will contribute €3.7 million to the funding of the project which will have an overall budget of €6.2 million. The commissioner for the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes, said PETROBOT illustrates their determination to exploit on the market the results of advanced research, to open up new markets for Union businesses and to create jobs in Europe. (IL/transl.jl)