In focus: Emission-reduction initiatives ramping up across offshore energy sectors

In today’s world, we live and breathe with huge uncertainties. The COVID-19 pandemic may have transformed the way we live and work; however, the offshore energy sectors seem to be finding their way through these challenges. A flashback to the week behind us reveals that new roadmaps to achieve net-zero goals are developed across various sectors, while new projects are giving hope that it’s possible to have a carbon-free society in the future.

The oil and gas sector is starting to see a shift towards more sustainable solutions with new roadmaps developed to meet the Paris-aligned net-zero targets. Finally catching up with its rivals, U.S. oil and gas giant ExxonMobil revealed this week its ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for operated assets by 2050.

ExxonMobil’s announcement comes almost two years after its rivals like BP and Shell made a commitment to reach net-zero in its operations by 2050 and less than a year after losing board seats to activist investor firm Engine No. 1. The activist investor believed ExxonMobil was falling short of what was expected related to reaching climate goals.

To help reach net-zero for operated assets by 2050, the company has identified more than 150 potential steps and modifications that can be applied to assets in its upstream, downstream and chemical operations. Initial actions already underway prioritize energy efficiency measures, methane mitigation, equipment upgrades and the elimination of venting and routine flaring, according to the company.

Also this week, Transocean, the operator of offshore drilling rigs, announced it went beyond its core business with plans to drill carbon injection well in support of the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project.

The project sets out to mitigate emissions and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by creating the first cross-border, open-source carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure network in the European Union.

Earlier on, the firm committed to reducing operating Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 40 per cent from 2019 levels by 2030.

Meanwhile, another cross-border project set sights on European ports to become greener in the future. A 45-member consortium headed by the Port of Rotterdam Authority working under the project MAGPIE (sMArt Green Ports as Integrated Efficient multimodal hubs) wants to promote smarter, zero-emission transport in ports.

The consortium project also wants to create a roadmap to greener logistics in European ports, leading to emission-free and fully digitalised ports by 2050.

MAGPIE’s goal is to lead to a breakthrough in the use of green energy carriers in port transport. These energy carriers specifically include green hydrogen, electric batteries, ammonia, and bio-LNG. In other words, the project will support developments that make green energy carriers available to the users.

Vessel owners made breakthroughs this week with initiatives to introduce new eco-friendly units. Jiangnan Shipyard and China Shipbuilding Trading, units of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), secured an order for the construction of two dual-fuel pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs).

Complying with international environmental regulations, the ship type represents a new generation of post-Panamax car carriers. The ship type is said to be the largest dual-fuel PCTC in the world, making a historic breakthrough in the country’s shipbuilding sector, according to CSSC.

The subsea sector also marks an order for “first of its kind” uncrewed surface vessel (USV). Netherlands-based Fugro placed an order for a SEA-KIT XL Class USV to support its future North Sea operations. The new vessel will feature the latest developments in uncrewed systems technology, including remote helm USV control and surveillance platform G-SAVI.

“Equipped with the Fugro Blue Amp electric eROV and being operated from one of our nine global remote operations centres (ROC), we will be able to support our clients in achieving safer and more efficient data collection operations, whilst contributing to our mutual carbon footprint reduction ambitions,” Ivar de Josselin de Jong, director Remote Inspection at Fugro, noted.

The week behind also brought the story about the green transformation happening in the marine energy and offshore wind sector. A new study conducted by LUT University and Utrecht University, along with other partners, explored the viability of combining offshore floating renewable energy technologies – like offshore wind, wave energy, and floating solar – to transition an island nation, Maldives, towards a fully renewable-based energy system.

Novel technology approaches, such as offshore floating solar and wave power, have been verified as potentially main technologies for countries with very limited land area and access to sea areas, according to the study.

However, offshore wind plays an important supporting role in most of the scenarios – though showing a limited growth potential between 2030 and 2050 in both the scenarios, whereas both floating solar and wave power are projected to gain substantial growth in electricity generation.

The importance of emission-reduction initiatives in the offshore wind sector was recognized this week in Scotland. Crown Estate Scotland selected 17 offshore wind projects in its ScotWind seabed leasing round, which aimed to procure at least 10 GW of offshore wind but resulted in the chosen proposals having a total capacity of 24,826 MW.

The biggest single project is a 3 GW floating wind proposal by Iberdrola’s Scottish Power Renewables, followed by BP’s fixed-bottom 2.9 GW project. The successful bidders also include Shell, Ocean Winds, Vattenfall, SSE Renewables, Falck Renewables, DEME, BayWa, Northland Power, Magnora Offshore Wind, and Offshore Wind Power.

“The variety and scale of the projects that will progress onto the next stages shows both the remarkable progress of the offshore wind sector, and a clear sign that Scotland is set to be a major hub for the further development of this technology in the years to come”, said Simon Hodge, Chief Executive of Crown Estate Scotland.