The Energy Transition,lessons learned from other heavy industries andthe opportunities they present for Oil and Gas Operators demonstrated byassociated case studies

摘要

The Oil and Gas industry today faces the 8Energy Trilemma,8 that is satisfying the growing global demandfor energy,in conjunction with increasing societal pressure to decarbonise whilst also reducing costs.Thedecarbonisation of Oil and Gas assets is often perceived to be a capital-intensive process,which willmake operations more difficult and impact profitability.Whilst this may be true for the more aggressive/ambitious mitigation schemes,there are solutions that can significantly improve the bottom line.Many ofthese solutions can be easily implemented,without significant disruption,and result present material GHGreductions.This paper highlights the opportunities for Oil and Gas operators to identify,fund,and execute energytransition projects that have successfully decarbonised assets.The decarbonisation methodology builds onlessons learned in identifying low carbon transition pathways for other high emitting industries.The process begins with a framework and evaluation model to assess a wide set of potential carbonreduction technologies that Oil and Gas companies can use to achieve carbon reduction.The key evaluationand prioritisation tool is the marginal abatement model which incorporates low carbon transition scenarioplanning with extended functionality aimed at providing insights to successfully achieve the targetedreduction and the potential impact of these scenarios on future financial performance.Following the evaluation and prioritisation methodology,this paper will review two decarbonisation casestudies that have identified positive cashflow outcomes.The first is the application of a hybrid energy systeminstalled at a remote onshore site to reduce reliance on diesel.The second considers reductions in the coldventing operations on a complex offshore facility to reduce fugitive emissions.The first case study demonstrates how an energy transition programme resulted in the phased deliveryof a complete hybrid energy system which integrated wind power,diesel generation,and several energystorage systems including hydrogen electrolysis,storage and fuels cells,as well as lithium ion batteries andflywheel technology,all managed by a custom microgrid controller to power this remote production sitewhilst reducing GHG emissions.This case study shows how experience and investment in another industrycan be exploited in the Oil and Gas industry.The lessons from the first phase were applied to make the second phase more economic,resulting in significant operating cost savings and the reduction in GHGemissions is 10,530 tCO2-eq per annum.The second case study offers an approach to decarbonisation which can be applied more generally inthe context of operational efficiency.The ease with which the project can be executed was also assessed toensure minimum operational downtime during the implementation phase.Our paper concludes that energy transition initiatives,if approached by combining deep techno-economical expertise,coupled with the experience from a wide range of industries,can provideattractive commercial opportunities for upstream and midstream operators.These projects whist meetingdecarbonisation goals also make suitable candidates for emerging energy transition financing initiatives.