In focus: Converting jack-up rigs and combining offshore wind & hydrogen for low-carbon future

This week saw a plethora of energy transition-related news across the offshore energy industry with updates telling of alternative deployments for offshore drilling rigs, new projects combining offshore wind and hydrogen, the urgency to decarbonise the shipping sector, and more.

In the fossil fuels realm, two offshore drilling contractors will be deploying their rigs to energy transition-related projects. Namely, under a contract with TAQA, one of Valaris’ jack-up rigs will be working on the preparation of a wellbore for the Dutch Porthos CO2 transport and storage project, which is aimed at capturing and storing carbon emissions from Rotterdam Port.

The project will collect emissions from factories and refineries and store them in empty gas fields in the North Sea. For this assignment, the rig will be upgraded with a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system, which will eliminate almost all NOx and SOx emissions.

Furthermore, a converted jack-up rig from Borr Drilling will be used for green hydrogen production. Project Haldane – cooperation between Aquaterra Energy, Borr Drilling, and Lhyfe – will develop an industrial-scale offshore green hydrogen production concept through the deployment of an electrolyser system on the converted jack-up rig.

Drilling contractor Borr pointed out that this project serves to reinforce the company’s ambition to improve the sustainability of its activities.

The concept will offer an alternative deployment to existing assets – such as jack-up drilling rigs traditionally used for oil and gas exploration – provide a source of green hydrogen, and enhance the commercial feasibility of remote offshore wind projects.

Over in Thailand, the country which previously heavily relied on coal for electricity production, is working to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels with a goal to draw 35 per cent of its energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2037.

As part of these efforts, the country has recently commissioned its third-largest floating photovoltaic (PV) farm located on the surface of a dam in the northeast province of Ubon Ratchathani. The 58.5 MW PV farm, occupying an area of 121 hectares, was grid-connected earlier this month. PV inverter solutions and floating solutions for the PV farm were delivered by Sungrow.

Serving as further proof that the roles of traditional fossil fuels-focused companies are changing as the energy transition is gaining pace is Shell’s statement revealing it is currently assessing potential offshore wind opportunities in Brazil.

Meanwhile, the offshore wind sector this week saw the formation of a strategic partnership between the power producer and gas trader, Uniper, and Denmark’s Ørsted with an aim of developing combined offshore wind and hydrogen projects on a large scale in Germany. This will be done through a system-serving direct integration of hydrogen production from offshore wind power at Uniper’s Wilhelmshaven site in Lower Saxony.

”Green hydrogen from offshore wind power is the driver of German decarbonization, as it plays a key role for future climate neutrality”, Jörg Kubitza, Germany Managing Director of Ørsted, said.

While the global seismic vessel fleet recovered to pre-Covid-19 levels in 3Q 2021 as energy transition jobs are ramping up, a new concept for a submersible mothership to be used at offshore wind farms is expected to resolve the remaining barriers to the adoption of subsea robotics by the offshore wind industry in terms of cost, carbon footprint, battery life at sea, and digital connectivity.

Namely, Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult and HonuWorx are set to demonstrate the concept in the form of a submersible platform that can transport large robots and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to offshore sites and release them directly under the water.

Another example of collaboration between the markets came with an update that BW Ideol, a floating offshore wind company partly owned by FPSO operator BW Offshore, teamed up with Ardersier Port Authority to secure access to the Scottish port for the production of its concrete floaters.

Under the agreement, the parties will study the creation of a serial production line for floating wind substructures based on BW Ideol’s technology. Dredging works will start during the next month with completion expected by August 2022.

Steven Regan of Ardersier Port Authority, said: “This strategic partnership allows us to work towards bringing an essential manufacturing facility to Scotland which complements our vision of using circular economy practices to deliver the United Kingdoms Energy Transition plans”.

Decarbonisation was the talk of the town this week in the shipping sector as over 150 industry players urged governments and global shipping industry leaders to commit to decarbonise by 2050.

Signatories include members from the entire maritime ecosystem including shipping, chartering, finance, ports, and fuel production. The initiative will be delivered to world governments in November 2021, ahead of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26).

“Shipping must align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal and be run entirely on net-zero energy sources by 2050. The private sector is leading the way and taking concrete actions to make zero-emission vessels and fuels the default choice by 2030, and decisive government action and enabling policy frameworks are needed now to reach our 2030 and 2050 ambitions”, industry leaders pointed out.

Speaking of shipping and clean fuels, energy company Denbury and Mitsubishi Corporation this week executed a term sheet for the transport and storage of CO2 from Mitsubishi’s proposed ammonia project on the Gulf Coast of the US, stressing their shared interest in energy and low-carbon opportunities.

Mitsubishi wants to introduce its ammonia fuel to the Japanese market. The production firstly starts from its ammonia project Gulf Coast facility in the latter half of the decade. It will produce around one million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) of ammonia. The associated CO2 emissions amount to around 1.8 mmtpa.