Abstract
As oil and gas look to reduce the carbon impacts of their offshore production, consideration is being given to incorporating offshore renewable energy into their offshore assets. Incorporating green energy into oil production reduces their Scope 1 emissions and potentially positions oil and gas fields to transition to green energy production when the reservoirs play out.
What this paper will show is that there are also ways for this to result in direct economic benefits, even while the renewable technologies are in their infancy.
A key enabler to this outcome could be Enhanced OTEC or EOTEC, which is a novel marine renewable energy system that produces continuous power, eliminating or reducing the need for back-up power. The main power production equipment for this system concept is seabed located, reducing the topsides requirements of typical systems, allowing for the possibility of brownfield retro-fit. Combining EOTEC with proven subsea factory components will allow the development and production of fields currently thought to be located too far from existing facilities via subsea tie-back. As a minimum, incorporation of such systems can reduce the cost and carbon load of the produced oil and gas. It may also allow faster development cycles and will extend the useful life of existing assets.
The paper presents a comparison of 4 different methods or producing a marginal field, two of which are conventional development approaches and two which are renewable energy enhanced.
Developing the field as a new production facility
A long tieback powered from the existing facility
A long tieback with subsea factory components powered by wind and batteries
A long tieback powered by EOTEC.
Both immediate and long term benefits of such a system will be considered.