The offshore renewable energy business shares a lot of similarities with offshore oil and gas development. The designs of the structures are similar, as are the work vessels needed to build and maintain them.
Corroding steel is a shared obsession, as is the soil analysis needed to be sure a structure is on sound footing. All of which could create opportunities for idle experts in offshore oil and gas construction and services.
“With the expertise of the oil and gas industry, we can tackle a lot of challenges,” said Alana Duerr, offshore wind lead for the US Department of Energy, during a speech at the 2017 Offshore Technology Conference where she asked for technical assistance to spark US offshore wind development.
The speech promoted the US offshore wind sector, which shares an unfortunate similarity to offshore exploration and production: it is not cost-competitive with onshore producers, whether it is wind, solar, or unconventional oil and gas.
That is the problem in most parts of the world with the exception of the North Sea, where there has been aggressive development with support from governments concerned about carbon emissions.
“The offshore wind sector has overtaken North Sea oil and gas,” said Lee Grace, senior naval architect at Vard Marine, during a presentation at OTC about a workboat the company developed for that market, which looks similar to those used in oil and gas (OTC 27772).
But given the deep slump in the offshore oil sector, there is reason for oil and gas contractors to consider their options.
Off the US east coast there is a large opportunity, with strong, steady winds near some of the biggest energy markets in the country. But the price is more than double the cost of onshore wind generation or gas-powered plants.
“We hear it (offshore wind) is too expensive, Duerr said, adding, “It is expensive. We do not have the supply chain to seize the price savings they have achieved in Europe.”
Building that industry will require thinking smaller. She described the structures needed as “smaller, leaner, and cheaper because we must install hundreds of them for an offshore wind farm.”
Fulfilling that need will require engineers who have focused on creating one-of-a-kind engineering marvels to switch to mass-producing standardized structures that look like production platforms but are made more quickly.
One questioner at the conference pointed out that “one of the things we do not do well is mass-produce things. If you needed 50 platforms that would require one a week.”
Onshore Opportunities Too
Of the ways to use renewable energy to support upstream activities, the onshore possibilities are more varied than wind and some will also take oilfield know-how to be realized.
Take, for instance, a proposal from Canadian research group C-FER, which is asking the heavy-oil industry in that country to help create a new breed of geothermal wells.
The idea exists only on paper, but if it can be proven out in the ground then its champions believe they will have greatly expanded the boundaries of where geothermal energy can be obtained, while also giving Canadian petroleum suppliers and manufactures a new, and much needed, global customer base.
And for heavy-oil companies that rely on steam injections to produce the sticky product, this approach to geothermal could dramatically cut down the amount of natural gas they need to turn water into steam. Instead, they could get all the power they need by drilling a couple of extra geothermal wells at the pad site.
Another company wants to help heavy-oil producers from sunnier climates such as California and across the Middle East where many enhanced oil recovery operations also use steam injections. Germany-based Solarlite says its low-cost and lightweight concentrated solar power system is competitive with natural gas, even at today’s low prices.
But becoming cost competitive is not the only challenge for renewable energy; there is a cultural chasm too. While speaking with JPT earlier this year, Jill Engel-Cox, the deputy director of the US Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis, said that hydrocarbon production and renewables will be used in conjunction because of improving economics, but she stressed that such a new approach to energizing oil fields will take time to shape up.
“A computer company can understand solar panels and they can understand electricity and production needs for server farms,” she said. “But with an older industry like oil and gas, that takes a little longer.”
