Opportunities for the Oil and Gas Industry in the Energy Transition
To discuss how the oil and gas industry can manoeuvre through these challenges, we invited NOV Chief Technology Officer and Chief Marketing Officer David Reid.
Here, he answered questions on how oil and gas companies can adjust their core business strategy to make themselves more resilient. He also discussed some key technological opportunities for the oil and gas industry in light of the global Energy Transition journey.
(This interview with David was first published on TechnologyCatalogue.com. You can view the full interview here.)
What are the changes in core business strategy that the oil and gas sector has to carry out to make its business more resilient in light of the accelerated journey towards Energy Transition?
I think it’s a natural transition that we are involved in already. I had a lot of conversations with oil and gas industry players on their journey into renewables, and I walked them through three aspects that they need to consider.
First, looking at rejuvenating existing oil and gas systems and practices to reduce their carbon footprint. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done there. We have a lot of efficiency systems and methods to eliminate the carbon footprint of producing oil and gas as well as what we do once we have it.
Second is taking core technology and ability that we already have and applying it to renewables. So, we already see that when we use the same drilling technologies for oil and gas in the installation works for wind offshore. Also, in our gas processing, we are very close to carbon capture of 5% — more than we are already doing. And in hydrogen production, we have methods that convert seawater to clean water. Furthermore, we are looking at offshore wind floaters (Semi-submersible floating vessels) that take technologies we have for drilling and make wind turbines operational in the most extreme weather conditions in deeper waters offshore.
Third and last is taking our inventive and creative efforts from the oil and gas industry into renewable energy. The things we learned pioneering new technologies and techniques, such as going 10,000 feet in the water or drilling accurately vertically and then horizontally over 40,000 feet into the earth. Those skills of scale and technical agility are also useful and can be applied to, let’s say, geothermal. At NOV, we are also applying technologies such as making solar panels easier and cheaper to get installed in solar farms, much more stable tower-erecting crane systems for land that can be used for wind farms, or in-field manufacturing solutions that allow the building of towers themselves onsite without transporting large structures. It is not necessarily transferring skills and capabilities directly from oil and gas to renewable energy, but using the same engineering prowess to invent something new or lower cost.
Where do you think technology and innovation can play a huge role in building a more resilient core business for oil and gas companies?
There are low cost and simple ideas we can easily apply that result in cost savings and carbon footprint reduction. For instance, the simplest thing we have done is adding hydrogen to the airline of a diesel engine, allowing the combustion process to be efficient, and immediately, we realised a 30-percent decrease in fuel usage.
Also, we do have systems that capture the energy like what a hybrid car does. We capture breaking energy and reuse it in the process. Another example that reduces energy consumption and lowers cost is how our software, which balances out and interacts with our control systems, connects engine output to the work being done, and starts managing engine use and optimization matching output with what is needed, turning off excess engines if possible and eliminating waste energy production.
Another technology we are working on is storing oil and gas subsea, which is a perfect system for ammonia and hydrogen storage utilizing the hydrostatic pressure and low temperatures to eliminate energy production required for storage. The same system could also contain energy by pumping air and storing it in a pressurized state subsea. This is particularly relevant in creating offshore ammonia stations to fuel up ships in the future, also allowing a reuse or repurposing of offshore platforms. Cost of removal for these offshore assets is high, hence this technology is a welcome development for the oil and gas industry.
One last example is a water purifying system that sits on the seabed and also uses the pressure of the seawater to run the system. This system is used to pressure up a reservoir in oil and gas to get more hydrocarbons produced when the natural pressure no longer pushes the hydrocarbons out, but also offers other uses to produce filtered water without using power. This could solve clean water problems in some parts of the world.
Read the full interview here.
