WHAT’S NEXT AND WHAT’S NEEDED IN OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS
THE INDUSTRY’S ROLE IN THE ENERGY TRANSITION Rod Larson, President and CEO, Oceaneering
Rod Larson, President and CEO, Oceaneering (Courtesy of Oceaneering)
The rumors of our industry’s death have been greatly exaggerated. While many believe that oil and gas is going away, history tells us otherwise.
We often hear the refrain, “we’ve found all the oil out there, and we will soon run out.” While in the past this has led to an energy crisis and higher costs, the industry continues to find more oil, in deepwater and in oil sands. When the industry was struggling with the high cost of per barrel break-evens, the industry found a way to adapt and bring down the price per barrel with new fit-for-purpose technology and techniques. The question now is can we be “clean”? More precisely, can we be clean enough to get a public mandate to continue what we do to provide the energy the world needs? Personally, I think we can. There are plenty of opportunities for us to participate in the energy transition, but we need to approach it differently.
MOVING OCEANEERING FORWARD Currently, the major oil and gas operators are making significant commitments to reducing carbon emissions. However, at least 70% or more of that reduction will come from vendors in the industry. How do service companies like ours achieve this? We will need to implement newer technologies like automation and machine learning. Resident subsea vehicles, like our Liberty™ E-ROV and the Freedom™ Subsea Autonomous Vehicle, will have an important role in reducing carbon footprints offshore. Instead of having a tender vessel on location for weeks, we can drop off our Liberty™ E-ROV to do the work (surveys, inspections, and interventions), and then have the vessel return to pick it up when it’s most practical. In integrity management, we can also make some changes. We can make sure that the industry infrastructure doesn’t have fugitive methane. We also want to avoid oil spills – due to equipment
10 | ROVplanet
Oceaneering’s Liberty E-ROV system being deployed from a vessel of opportunity offshore Norway. (Courtesy of Oceaneering)
