New technology dominates opening of ‘offshore Europe’

Britain must become the global leader in oil and gas decommissioning and then sell its expertise to the rest of the world, Andrew Jones, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, has urged.

Offsetting high costs involved in decommissioning in oil and gas

As he arrived in Aberdeen to address the Offshore Europe conference, Mr Jones pointed out the North Sea was one of the first regions in the world to embark on large-scale decommissioning with the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) forecasting that UK operators will spend almost £60 billion on the process between now and the 2050s.Mr Jones said, “The UK oil and gas industry supports 300,000 jobs and, with up to 20 billion barrels of oil yet to recover, has many productive years ahead. As the need for decommissioning grows, we must seize the opportunity to cement the UK as a world leader in this field and export this knowledge globally.“Efficient decommissioning means big changes to the oil and gas industry – requiring new technology, skills and innovative approaches. This will ensure that decommissioning is safe and cost effective while also protecting the environment.”The UK government is offering tax relief on decommissioning that will cover about 40 per cent of the total cost for British companies, while the industry is banking on technological advances reducing costs by an additional third.

Taking the next technological step in oil and gas

Andy Samuel, OGA chief executive, said, “We are working closely with operators and service providers and are already seeing some great performance in cost-efficient decommissioning, new collaborations and technology trials.“This bodes well for the shared target of 35 per cent cost reductions and the considerable domestic and export value that can be realised.”At the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce business breakfast at the opening of Offshore Europe, Mark Hutchinson, a partner at professional services firm EY, told delegates that the oil and gas industry should prepare itself for the “fourth industrial revolution” – emerging technologies likely to shape the future of both the upstream and downstream sectors.“The first industrial revolution was steel, the second was the age of electrification, the third is the age of information technology and the fourth is the age of digitisation,” he said.“The cost of technology has pretty much been halving every one to two years. You might know someone who got a drone as a Christmas present. Seven years ago something like that might have been bought for £10,000 at a specialist shop. If you buy it now it’s probably £20.“More people today have access to a mobile phone than a lavatory. It’s revolutionising everything from farming in Africa to the way teenage kids interact with media and access content – whether we like it or not.“The biggest spend in the oil and gas industry over the last five years has been on mobile devices in terms of digital technology investment. The people coming into the industry are much more comfortable with the use of devices such as mobiles and iPads rather than older technology.”Mr Hutchinson said the next step was robotics, citing projects such as Eelume’s underwater robot ‘worm’ used for maintenance inspection and repair. “In many ways this is nothing new. The moment when robotics will really hit is when people can produce a robot that can stand and walk and is stable in its own right,” he said.“Of course robotics isn’t just about machines, it’s about software as well. Robotics is here now and only getting quicker, cheaper and bigger.”On artificial intelligence, Mr Hutchinson said, “The big tech companies have been investing heavily in data analytics, business intelligence and artificial intelligence – systems that can think for themselves. There’s a whole plethora of start-ups – and I’m sure we will see lots of exhibitors over the next few days – this is the field in which they work.“BP are putting a lot of money into this. They invested $20million in a company called Beyond Limits which has been taking a lot of the artificial intelligence that is being developed for the International Space Station and NASA and developing that for the oil and gas industry.“When you start combining that with drone or satellite imagery that becomes really interesting. The power of some of these emerging technologies and the decisions you can make on the back of the data is growing significantly all the time.”

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Augmented reality and virtual reality

Mr Hutchinson continued, “Augmented reality is putting a digital world on to a real world image. You have a whole bunch of companies investing very heavily in it, to look at sourcing technology where you can see through the walls of buildings to what might be behind it.“This could have a profound impact on companies and industry if it hasn’t already and it’s also really good from a health and safety point of view in terms of training people to do things onshore from a safe location rather than having to go offshore.”Mr Hutchinson also said the block chain – a digital ledger of data – could become key to contracts, data processing and many other aspects of the oil and gas industry. “What’s really interesting about block chain isn’t the coins or crypto currency – it’s the technology that underpins it,” he said.“Block chain, we think, is slightly more emerging than emerged but the technology underpinning it is really beginning to move into the mainstream. It has huge potential across the oil and gas industry. It’s a hugely efficient way of processing stuff and you can do ‘smart contracts’.”For related news and features, visit our Technology section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit

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