Aker BP looking to decrease carbon footprint with new tech deal

Norwegian oil and gas company Aker BP has signed an agreement with compatriot maritime tech company Yxney Maritime for a software solution which would assist with offshore carbon emission cuts.

Aker BP said on Wednesday that Yxney’s Maress solution would enable it to get a detailed insight into the fuel consumption and carbon emissions from the fleet of offshore vessels operating on the Norwegian Shelf.

The software provides a foundation for making informed and data-driven decisions on how to decrease carbon emissions during operations.

The oil company said that the agreement between Aker BP and Yxney Maritime had a one-year duration, with an option to extend.

Gunn Elin Hellegaard, VP for Logistics & Marine in Aker BP, said: “Aker BP is actively pursuing initiatives to optimize energy consumption and to reduce the carbon emission intensity from our operations. We have close cooperation with some of the very best and most energy-efficient vessel owners out there.

“Our ambition is that Maress will strengthen this collaboration even further and enable us to shave off several additional percentage points in the fuel consumption of the fleet that we charter.

“The environmental potential of this is significant. Energy-efficient operations are in the interest of everyone involved and are core to Aker BP´s strategy. This will also be an important tool to drive improvement and enable the full effect of the performance incentivized contacts with our strategic partners for platform supply vessels”.

Yxney CEO, Simen Sanna, added: “There is incredible momentum in the industry now to reduce the emissions from operations. Having the right insight and willingness to act on it determines the winners of tomorrow.

“Aker BP has clearly demonstrated a capacity to use advanced data-driven solutions to get an edge. We look forward to cooperating with Aker BP in this spirit, and to create tangible emission reductions”.

The company added that gathering fuel and carbon emission data was challenging since it is chartering vessels from a range of owners.

Maress connects available data streams from vessel hardware and makes the data comparable across vessels, segments, or specific parts of the operations.

Aker BP will be able to use Maress to closely follow the efficiency development of single vessels and the chartered fleet as a whole.

According to the company, the solution will also be used to evaluate the direct savings from specific initiatives such as the installation of a battery system on a vessel along with deciding what fuel-saving initiatives to deploy.

Many energy companies are looking into lowering their carbon footprint. BP already announced its move to become net-zero by 2050, just like Shell and Equinor.

The latter two, along with France’s Total are also moving forward with the Northern Lights project aimed to enable the transport of carbon dioxide captured from industrial sites in Norway and its storage in a reservoir below the seabed in the North Sea.

Companies in other industries are even looking to become a carbon negative company like IT giant Microsoft.

Some innovators, like those in the drone industry, are looking at how to beat PSVs at their own game and become the leaders in on-demand delivery in the offshore industry. Most importantly, do it with zero carbon emissions.