Energy, its generation and consumption, has never been in the general public consciousness as much as it is now. The world has an ever-increasing need for energy as societies around the world develop and consumer demand rises.
The UK has had a leading offshore Oil and Gas Industry for more than 50 years and an offshore Wind Industry for nearly 20 years, supporting energy demand both domestically and internationally. In this blog, Telos’ Lead Advisor Steve Windass, provides some thoughts on how the two industries can work together to ensure that the UK becomes a world leader in the transition to sustainable energy.
Over the last 50 years, the UK has maintained a leading position in offshore technology and innovation, with expertise and experience continuously gained ever since gas was first produced from the West Sole field in 1967. The North Sea is one of the harshest offshore environments to operate in, and this challenging frontier spawned the growth of an industry within the UK, which is still admired around the world today.
In 1991 Denmark constructed the world’s first offshore windfarm, and so the green shoots of a new North Sea industry started to appear. At the turn of the century the UK offshore industry witnessed the emergence of offshore wind with a pilot project consisting of two turbines. In the years that followed, larger scale commercial projects started to appear, and then in the last ten years the UK’s appetite for offshore wind has taken off, with the shallow waters of the southern region of the UK continental shelf becoming a prime development area. Twenty years on, and the world’s largest offshore windfarm is now situated in these waters, with the number of wind turbines installed in this region continuing to grow.
Rather fitting that the new chapter in the UK’s energy needs can draw on the vast offshore engineering experience already in existence. However, close collaboration between the oil and gas sector and the offshore wind industry seems not to be happening. Two industries which share so many challenges and opportunities, with offshore wind undoubtably benefiting from the fifty years of offshore oil and gas experience, so why are they not working together more?
Collaboration is key to help enable the energy transition. Net Zero has become a very clear goal, both in the UK and worldwide, but despite the fantastic advancements with renewable technologies and their contribution to reducing Green House Gas emissions, we can’t remove our need for fossil fuels overnight. And with the drive for an increased use of Hydrogen, including recent announcements promoting the development of blue hydrogen production facilities we will certainly still need natural gas for this process alone.
Therefore, we need our two offshore sectors to combine and work together. A harmonised approach to providing the UK energy needs. A transition that will ultimately support the journey towards net zero. Oil and Gas and Offshore wind are operating on the same playing field, and with respect to the UK’s energy needs they are contributing towards the same end game, so why not come together to benefit one another and the nation? Offshore platforms need electricity, so why can’t the system be designed to feed this need? The wind industry feeds a customer base on land but why can’t it include a customer base offshore as well, removing diesel and gas fuelled generation on the platforms, in addition to the integration of renewable technologies into the existing grid infrastructure? Offshore wind turbines are often curtailed during periods when the national grid is saturated yet sitting in close proximity is an oil and gas platform needing power. Furthermore, shouldn’t we be developing energy storage facilities in parallel with the offshore wind growth to remove the need for this curtailment?
The collaboration potential does not end with power supply, or with the sharing of equipment and services, supply and logistics, and possible maintenance team synergies. There is clearly further opportunity with the repurposing or extension of existing oil and gas installations to incorporate windfarm substations, creation of shared offshore bases for operations and maintenance crews and the integration of hydrogen production electrolysis equipment, located in the space available on repurposed existing platforms.
Then there is the reuse of oil and gas installations and infrastructure for the carbon capture and storage revolution, the reinjection of carbon dioxide for storage, a practice of increasing importance on the road to Net Zero.
All the activities mentioned above combine the expertise, infrastructure and capability of both Oil and Gas and Wind. Surely it is time for the two industries to start working in partnership together – do you agree?
About Telos
Telos was formed in 2017 as an innovative, dynamic, and experienced operator-led team that provides a comprehensive suite of project management and advisory services, including the supply of “top-up” resources when clients are operating at peak capacity to a wide range of customers, mainly operating across the energy sector.
As part of Telos’ service offerings, we support companies working through their own Energy Transition journey.
If you would like to discuss this or any of our other services with us, please get in touch via our website or call us on +44 207 8594882.
