Operators’ Technology Plans are reflecting industry priorities to reduce offshore greenhouse gas emissions.
Reduction of flaring and venting emissions are targeted, for instance, through technologies able to recover flash gas and/or improve flare combustion efficiency.
Operators are targeting power emissions through more efficient equipment, alternative low-carbon fuels, hybrid power systems, and/or replacing conventional power generation with renewable power from offshore windfarms or the shore.
Interest in carbon storage is growing rapidly and innovative technologies are needed in areas ranging from site characterisation, to well and facility design, and the Monitoring, Measurement and Verification of CO2 injection over the lifetime of the carbon store.
2024 technology survey data is showing an increase in the reporting of hydrogen production related technologies (3 Operators)
Net Zero technologies
In line with industry commitments to the North Sea Transition Deal to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, interest in technologies to address Flaring & Venting, Energy Efficiency, and Low-Carbon Power has grown significantly
Companies with the largest operational footprint in the UKCS show greatest interest, but in general there is a broad presence of these technologies in the reported plans (23 Operators out of 50)
Net Zero is defined in this document as a ‘cross-cutting’ category, where technologies are an integral part of the offshore asset lifecycle (chart below)
Net Zero technologies by area of application
Technology solutions for Net Zero tended to be less proven than in other more mature categories, but in the latest survey nearer half are reported at first deployment or still under development
Operators are getting more involved directly in the technology development cycle in this area, often in partnership with vendors and the Net Zero Technology Centre
Readiness definitions: Early Development (TRL 1-4), Late Development/Pilot (TRL 5-7), Early commercialisation (TRL 8), Proven (TRL 9)
Flaring & venting monitoring and reduction technologies are showing an increased focus as Operators align with achieving zero routine flaring, open reporting aligned with the principles of OGMP 2.0, and anticipating methane’s inclusion in UK ETS proving strong combined drivers. Liquid ring compressors for flare gas recovery is noted. New this year are intelligent wireline formation testing programme, improved data search and classification of well information, and online flare combustion efficiency measurement.
- Intelligent wireline formation testing platform – To enable real time data interpretation in a collaborative environment. Built-in deep transient testing capabilities eliminate flaring and reduce carbon emissions. Deployment on wireline with standard crew
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
Technology Example:
The Ora™ intelligent wireline formation testing platform delivers dynamic reservoir characterization by combining new digital hardware with cloud-native collaborative software—for unprecedented performance and insights in all conditions.
- Improved data search and classification - Enhanced identified, tagging, tracking & reporting of well information. Improvements to Operators NDR reporting compliance at well & field level
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Plant performance optimisation – Enables optimised running parameters to reduce GHG emissions
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Liquid ring compressor - Can compress nearly all gases and vapours without any metallic parts contacting one another, used for flare gas recovery
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
Technology Example:
Liquid ring compressor uses a liquid ring formed from the operating liquid, instead of a mechanical piston, as an energy carrier to compress gases and vapours. Liquid ring compressors can compress nearly all gases and vapours without any metallic parts contacting one another.
Technology example link
- Flare combustion efficiency measurement – An online, live measurement of combustion efficiency providing control feedback to improve the combustion efficiency of flaring operations and thereby reduce overall emission rates of CO2 and methane
- TRL 8 Early commercialisation
- Autonomous methane measurement - Of emissions from unburnt fuel gas, unburnt flare gas, venting and fugitives. Use of ATEX rated autonomous measurement device to detect and quantify baseline methane emissions and abnormal events using TDLAS measurement technique.
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
Net zero technologies targeting low carbon power/electrification are focussed on substituting/reducing the dependency on fuelling gas turbine on-platform power. This includes platform electrification from grid or from local floating offshore wind, hybrid power systems, topsides and subsea power packs for short-term energy storage, and alternative low carbon fuels for turbines / engines, wave energy for subsea power systems and further renewable power sources from floating wind and power from shore. New this year are an energy pod, photovoltaics and fuel cell power generation.
- Photovoltaics - solar power system - Power generated using Photovoltaics arranged in arrays. Power output proportional to incident light intensity – highly seasonal.
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Hybrid power system - Providing a low maintenance solar panel solution, providing power to the platform whilst charging batteries. Two small lean-burn diesel-engine driven generators provide energy in case the renewable system fails.
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Transportable, autonomous energy container combining wind turbine, solar panels and battery storage for use on platforms in lighthouse mode
- TRL 8 Early commercialisation
Technology Example:
With a unique combination of Amphibious Energy’s Nautilus Offshore Wind Turbine, vertical orientated solar photovoltaic panels, and battery storage integrated with the container, it directly competes with conventual transportable power generators.
Technology example link
- Fuel cell power generation - Installation of 600kW fuel cell technology to produce electricity from imported gas with minimal emissions and high efficiency.
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The R&D carried out by the EODev and Toyota teams has enabled the REXH2 to be perfectly adapted to the extreme conditions of the marine environment, reaching power levels of 70 kW per unit, up to megawatts when stacked. |
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- Wave Energy Convertor (WEC) - Comprising WEC, subsea battery storage, subsea control system topside, subsea equipment, residential Hybrid AUV (HAUV) and a docking station
- TRL 8 Early Commercialisation
- E-Methanol - Generating low carbon fuel offshore in an economical way without impacting MAH
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- Battery storage - On-site battery system to provide additional power resilience.
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- Alternative fuel - Deployment of green hydrogen equipment for site services.
- TRL 5- 7 Late Development/ Pilot
- Low carbon power solutions - Wind power solutions and grid connection
- TRL 1-4 Early Development
Energy Efficiency technologies are maintaining focus amongst Operators as a cost-effective way of reducing emissions which also reduces fuel consumption and boosts exported production over the remaining asset life. New this year are turbine power management system obsolescence upgrades, an optimised power management and integrated operations centre, and remote operations centres for survey by ASVs. Emerging technologies are capacitive transfer system cable design requiring smaller cable diameters with reduced losses, and a remote operations project.
- Turbine Power Management System Obsolescence – Replaces existing, obsolete system to provide automatic synchronisation facility between main turbine generators as well as load sharing and load shedding functions.
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Optimised power management - Improves visibility through greater data handoff at high resolution for improved fault-finding and maximising efficiency
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Integrated operations centre - Optimising the production and energy efficiency of the from visualisation portals allowing stakeholders to assess status and plans. A separate area is related to a dashboard visualising status
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Optimising GT Efficiency - To increase the efficiency of simple cycle GTs offshore driving compression and power generation.
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Power sharing across assets - Through installation of subsea power umbilicals, reducing the requirement to run as much power generation equipment, reducing GHG emissions and operating costs
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- Capacitive Transfer System (CTS) - New capacitive cable system design with aims to reduce cable power losses by 10% allowing for smaller cables with lower losses for same power capacity
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
Technology Example:
Capacitive Transfer System (CTS) is an innovative concept for power cable design leading to lower losses and facilitating more power delivery than equivalent legacy cable systems.
- Gas compression analytics - Use of data science methods to improve gas compression up time
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- Advancing remote operations - Remote operations to create safer, more efficient and lower carbon operations
- TRL 1-4 Early development
Multiple new projects at scale are emerging this year with a focus on CCS enabling technologies at all stages including transportation, well and tree design, subsurface assessments for reservoir containment, assessment of risks for storage in existing abandoned reservoirs and monitoring, measurement and verification of CO2 injection into depleted reservoirs. New this year are Seabed 4D gravity monitoring, gas sequestration and seabed digital acoustic sensing. Emerging technology is assessment of impurity impact on CO2 streams.
- Seabed 4D gravity monitoring - Undertaking modelling of seabed gravity sensing survey technology over carbon storage sites
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- In-line inspection for offshore pipeline repurposing - an offshore pipeline will be repurposed for CO2 transportation. Fracture and corrosion assessment has been completed but an in-line inspection using intelligent pigs will confirm assumptions and results from this assessment.
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- CO2 injection well design - cement sheath modelling - Initial flow assurance results have indicated cryogenic injection conditions for most of the wells’ design life. This technique looks at the impact of cold temperatures on the effectiveness of the annular cement sheath over the life of the well and post abandonment.
- TRL 9 Commercially Available
- SPARK - Gas sequestration project in partnership with NZTC and HWU
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- Seabed digital acoustic sensing (S-DAS) - Modelling of S-DAS over carbon storage sites
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- Qualification testing for well elastomers - Existing elastomers are not qualified for anticipated low temperatures or for the CO2 and accompanying impurities expected in the stream captured from emitters. Lab testing and qualification activity will enable appropriate elastomer material selection for new CO2 injection wells.
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
- Carbon capture utilisation and storage - CCUS applications for reducing GHG emissions and improving reservoir recovery through EOR. Potential for hub developments.
- TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
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Subsurface CO2 storage assessment - Subsurface modelling, potentially incorporating new data acquisition and processing to allow modelling of CO2 injectivity, migration and containment to better understand the risks involved.
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TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
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MMV – Measurement, Monitoring and Verification technology assessments. Preparation of MMV plans tailored to specific storage sites to enable achievement of required detectability thresholds for any given licence area. Assessment includes wide variety of available and emerging technologies.
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TRL 5-7 Late Development/Pilot
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Impurity impact on CO2 stream - Presence of impurities in CO2 streams is not well understood in terms of the impurity impact on CO2 phase behaviour and temperature conditions and corrosivity.
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TRL 1-4 Early development
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