5 Future Predictions Of The Offshore Industry And Why Is It Better For The Environment?

1) The Lines Between Fossil And Renewable Energy Will Be Blurred

Today, nearly every product a consumer buys has a fossil fuel somewhere in how it is made or delivered. Coal requires little technology and offers a great deal of energy. As such, it is a stubborn and persistent part of the high-CO2 energy system. Dealing with it will take determined action by governments to provide competitive alternatives.

In recent years, better renewable electricity has been generated efficiently. Rapid progress with renewable electricity technologies has made the price affordable. This leads Energy Experts to look at renewable energy as being the future of our energy resources.

In this way, we can free fossil fuels and coal to produce more sophisticated carbon products. Hydrocarbons and polymers can make it a feedstock rather than a fuel.

2) “Smart Oilfield” Technology

Digital oilfield technologies replicate an oilfield’s performance on a computer. Engineers can gather and monitor production through a tablet or mobile device.

At the end of the day, this data provides key indicators of oilfield well-being and performance. In this way, it improves and simplifies accurate decision-making.

With gas demand set to persist until at least 2050, there will be increased costs and activity on older pipeline systems all around the world. In North America, pipeline systems continue to be repurposed and undergo change of service due to shifts in where gas is produced and consumed, and LNG exports being allowed.

From a technology standpoint, the ideal solution would need to seamlessly connect all systems and hardware platforms across the various fields of operation, integrating exploration, drilling and production facilities, and ultimately delivering useful data and video streams to a central location, allowing the operators to make better and quicker decisions.

3) The challenge of rig decommissioning

The offshore oil and gas sector took off 50 years ago. The largest oil rigs may extend hundreds of feet to the bottom of the seabed and be supporting multiple platforms full of technical equipment and accommodation for workers.  Thousands of huge bulky structures such as offshore rigs, platforms, and pipelines are nearing the end of their current useful life.

One of the biggest challenges facing oil and gas companies is the cost of decommissioning aging rigs around the world. The cost will reach $13bn a year by 2040.

More than 600 rigs will be decommissioned by 2021. Sinking the rigs is not feasible.  Oil companies need to come up with environmentally friendly ways of decommissioning rigs or face a potentially huge backlash from increasingly environmentally conscious consumers.

As of January 2018, the North Sea was home to 184 offshore rigs, while the Golf of Mexico had 175 and the Persian Gulf housed 159.

4) Digital transformation offshore

Since the Industrial Revolution, the Oil & Gas industry has played a pivotal role in the economic transformation of the world. It fuels the need for heat, light, and mobility of the world’s population. Today the oil and gas industry is able to redefine its boundaries through digitalization.

Asset owners increasingly see the benefit of gathering data to improve operations. They are looking for ways to own both the data they generate and the technology that enables them to manage maintenance programs.  Digital technology such as real-time monitoring, accurate reporting for compliance purposes, integration of Wi-Fi, and location-based technologies are examples of this trend.

More oil and gas companies are taking steps to capture and learn from smart data to make their operations smarter and reduce costs. Largest fleet owners are expected to be the most aggressive in leading this development.

5) Enabling greater use of stranded offshore gas

The stranded gas reserve is a natural gas field that has been discovered but the gas fields are too deep to drill into.

Offshore gas producers face significant challenges in some of the world’s largest natural gas resources. They are found at great distances from the biggest gas markets and without access to export infrastructure routes.

Substantial growth in FLNG technology can offer a solution to unlock the development of stranded offshore gas assets. Production can be exported by LNG carriers rather than uneconomic pipelines.

In some locations, companies may prefer to send LNG direct to the final market’s entry point rather than processing gas onshore.