electrification

Organizers of the Oil & Gas Authority’s decarbonization competition are looking for ideas to bring electrification and an integrated energy basin closer to reality.

Using electricity to run oilfield operations is supposed to make everything better, but just getting the power needed is a challenge.

After more than 2 decades of talk, multiple millions of dollars in investments, and a decade’s worth of joint industry projects, operators are starting to get on board with electrification as the base case for subsea solutions.

The Swedish operator is using a $35-million tree-planting initiative to offset the estimated 98,000 BOED it produces from the Edvard Grieg field about 111 miles offshore Stavanger.

The operator's aggressive decarbonization effort has put it on the fast track to produce nearly a third of its oil and gas from the Norwegian Continental Shelf using electricity generated by onshore hydroelectric plants.

BP says its new $1.3-billion Grand Slam electrified oil, gas, and water-handling facility is a clear example of its net-zero strategy in action.

An ATCE session focused on subsea and offshore subsurface applications with much wider implications. The discussion included the electrification of both facilities and subsurface systems, as well as more-extensive deployment of sensing and flow control from the surface to the reservoir.