The oil and gas industry has led world economies for generations. It has supplied energy for transportation, powered homes, and driven industries. While the industry has an impact on the environment, the greenhouse gas emissions and how they cause disruptions in ecosystems have caught a few eyebrows, with people calling for scrutiny. More than ever, the oil and gas sector is more in need of innovation to imagine a sustainable future. Green technology comes in—the wave of innovation that promises much more than an answer to environmental concerns, which also brings value to the bottom line of an enterprise and value to its operational efficiency. Here, we share innovations, their importance, and how these innovations are shaping the oil and gas industry into a sustainable future.
Green technologies are defined as products, services, and systems that employ renewable materials and sources of energy with the least degree of emissions and wastage and cause negligible harm to the environment. In the case of the oil and gas industry, green technologies aim to decrease the ecological footprint of energy production and consumption while keeping the industry ‘in business’.
Credit: Wikipedia
Carbon capture and storage, also known as carbon capture and sequestration, is the process of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced in the combustion of fossil fuels for electricity generation and other industrial purposes. Following capture, the CO2 is transported and then injected into deep underground geological formations, ensuring that it cannot reach the atmosphere.
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Most conventional hydraulic fluids have numerous harmful chemical impurities that, if dumped into the environment, pollute the soil and water. Biodegradable hydraulic fluids are derived from renewable sources, and they are readily biodegradable, hence reducing associated impacts on the environment.
Biodegradable fluids are the usage in firms such as TotalEnergies, thus reducing environmental incidences. It has protected the ecosystem but improved the safety of its operations.
Some oil and gas companies are aware of this opportunity for hybridising renewable energy sources like wind and solar systems in their production processes. The latter will further reduce their dependence on fossil fuels while continuing to produce energy.
For instance, Equinor invested in certain offshore wind initiatives. This way, the investments will not only fuel their oil and gas facilities but also provide renewable energy. The latter could keep the emission levels low enough as it maximises efficiency in operations.
Many developments have been seen in drilling technology; an example is horizontal and automated drilling rigs. Such technologies make many of the resources more accessible with minimal surface disruption.
Advanced drilling technologies ensure the accessibility of firms’ harder-to-reach reserves. The environmental footprint left behind by the firm is also brought down. The waste generated from extraction is also sure to be reduced in keeping with land-saving ways.
It means moving away from the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI)—this moves the game for the oil and gas industry. Smart technologies can monitor and analyse equipment and processes in real time to improve them and reduce waste at the same time.
Predictive maintenance is just one of the smart technologies that depends on AI. Such a program shall indicate a potential failure of equipment before it happens, meaning a loss due to downtime and the general cost of maintenance is kept to a minimum. Chevron has started this on its operations, and results have been highly observable in many of the endeavours.
Water is a very important resource for the oil and gas industries since they consume it in extraction, processing, and refining processes. However, all these processes leave an imprint on local water supplies: either they get depleted or polluted.
New state-of-the-art desalination techniques and water recycling technologies are highly helping companies to manage and conserve their usage of water. For example, closed-loop hydraulic fracturing converts the use of water—this hugely reduces the consumption of freshwater resources.
Oil and gas companies produce a tremendous amount of waste, mostly from drilling mud to spent chemicals. Powerful technologies in waste management will also help limit that impact.
Transformation of wastes into a new resource for reuse is one of the means of developing unique waste-to-energy systems through circular economy practices. Firms such as ConocoPhillips are finding waste products an asset rather than a form of waste item that diminishes landfills.
Companies that are pioneering the use of green technology in their own systems are, therefore, one of the brightest hopes for the entire industry.
The largest amount spent has been by Shell on carbon capture and storage projects, where it aims to capture as much as 25 million metric tons of CO2 by 2025. Already, a Quest project in Canada captures and stores over 5 million metric tons of CO2 since 2015 and does an excellent job.
BP wants to move towards the era of renewable energy sources, investing in solar and wind projects all over the world. Working towards a new landscape of sustainable energies, formed as part of its collaboration with Lightsource BP, large offshore wind farms from the commitment.
As if walking several giant strides in renewable energy via developing offshore wind farms, Equinor presents one such example in the Hywind project, a quite innovative floating wind farm that also enables oil and gas operations and marks a sign of what is possible in hybrid systems.
Problem of Adoption: Though highly promising, much has to be overcome. This can include higher starting costs, specific bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles, or even resistance by established organisations to change.
Overcoming Obstacles: Collaboration and Partnerships: Innovative solutions can be adapted through collaboration with providers of technology, research organisations, and government agencies.
Government support: A government policy may uplift the investment in green technology as well as encourage companies to be proactive in their sustainable practices.
Training and Education: Upskill your workforce with those skills that will help them implement and make use of new technologies to achieve success.
Oil and gas companies will have several trends that shape the future of green technologies, such as but not limited to:
Friendly policies by the government will positively influence the adoption of green technology. They will induce investment in sustainable practices between companies via incentives, grants, and favourable regulations.
The oil and gas industry has come to the crossroads, with more urgency than ever on industries’ needs to embrace sustainability. As such, this is an opportunity for the creation of green technologies such as carbon capture, biodegradable fluids, and smart technologies, paving the way for innovations toward sustainability.
Much potential for positive change lies in the collaboration among the various stakeholders of the oil and gas sector in embracing the solutions. After all, a journey towards a greener future is an opportunity for growth, for innovation, and for responsibility. Together, we can have a balanced approach to energy production meeting the needs of today without being part of that of tomorrow’s.
With more blogging, case studies, statistics, and expert quotes, I think this will easily reach 3000 words. Feel free to add sections that are more specific or any part you’d like to get into greater detail about!
Also Read: Collaborations and Partnerships in Upstream Oil and Gas
