In focus: highlights from an industry in change

The world is changing fast and the offshore energy industry goes along with it. For a lot of markets, it is not business as usual. Key elements in the production chains are transformed and sustainability is one of the main drivers behind this wave of innovation. In this edition of In Focus, we sum up the most relevant developments for the offshore energy industry from this point of view.  

If to new energy carriers there is a lot of buzz around hydrogen. There are a lot of plans on the drawing table, but some projects are taking off. Like energy company Ørsted’s first green hydrogen project, the 2 MW H2RES offshore wind-to-hydrogen demonstrator in Denmark. It is expected to go into operation in the first half of 2022, the company said in its 2021 annual report.

H2RES, which will produce renewable hydrogen for road transport, is being built on Ørsted’s premises on Avedøre Holme in Copenhagen and will use the company’s two 3.6 MW offshore wind turbines installed there to power hydrogen production through an electrolyser of 2 MW capacity.

Energy intelligence group Wood Mackenzie sees green hydrogen as a key driver for net-zero economies and decarbonising global energy systems. Given the right market and policy environment, green hydrogen has the potential to act as a key driver for the net-zero ambitions of many nations who participated in COP26.

“Current challenges of deploying low carbon hydrogen at scale include transportation from the production side to the demand side, besides bridging the gap from the supply to demand side, here is where governments can really step in and support the deployment of large-scale midstream infrastructure such as pipelines which are the cheapest method of transporting hydrogen,” said Flor Lucia De la Cruz, senior research analyst, Hydrogen and Emerging Technologies.

When it comes to demand, initiatives like green shipping corridor help to speed up the process. Los Angeles and Shanghai have announced a partnership of cities, ports, shipping companies and a network of cargo owners to create a first-of-its-kind green shipping corridor on one of the world’s busiest container shipping routes.

Convened by C40 Cities and the ports of Shanghai and Los Angeles, and including key maritime stakeholders, this partnership has agreed to work on an initiative to establish a Green Shipping Corridor to decarbonise goods movement between the largest ports in the United States and China. Establishing green shipping corridors is said to be critical to enabling the early adoption of long-term decarbonization solutions for international shipping, especially along major routes.

One vessel that is welcome in the green corridor is Kriti Future. She is the first ammonia-fuel ready vessel in the world. Greek shipowner Avin International has taken delivery of Kriti Future. The delivery ceremony for the 274-meter-long tanker took place at New Times Shipbuilding on 10 January 2022.

“This vessel represents a milestone in the development of the maritime industry and a step forward in the readiness to utilize alternative marine fuels,” Filippos Nikolatsopoulos, ABS Manager, Greece Business Development, pointed out.

Looking at things differently from the perspective of the changing sector, Oil & Gas UK (OGUK), a representative body for the UK’s offshore oil and gas industry, is expanding its membership. It now includes low-carbon offshore energy technologies as well as offshore wind, hydrogen production, carbon capture and storage systems, and other emerging low-carbon technologies. Following a year-long strategic review, the move takes effect from 14 February 2022 and it will also see OGUK changing its name to Offshore Energies UK. ​

And that a lot is going on when it comes to the energy transition in the United Kingdom proves National Grid Electricity System Operator. The UK’s electricity system operator has published Networks Options Assessment (NOA) for 2022 recommending more than £5 billion (around $6.7 billion) worth of grid infrastructure investments in the North of Scotland. The electricity transmission owner for this region and part of the SSE Group SSEN Transmission welcomed the proposals that include two subsea high-voltage direct current (HVDC) links from Peterhead to England as well as a second HVDC link from Spittal in Caithness, connecting to Peterhead.

Companies from the United Kingdom are exporting their renewable energy knowledge too. UK tidal energy project developer SBS has received approval to start the feasibility study for the Larantuka Strait tidal energy project in Indonesia.

Michael J. Spencer, SBS Group chairman and CEO, said: “Confirmation from our valued Indonesian partner IP to commence the feasibility study activity is a significant step forward in the project development process. Completion of the feasibility study activity will allow joint participating partners to move to the next stage, which involves our selected tidal turbine generator original equipment manufacturers and financial partners, at which time the final engineering activity (FEED) and turbine manufacturing will commence.”