Using renewable energy can help the oil and gas industry to reduce emissions while getting a stable, high-quality power supply. The renewable energy system can even be used to help the oil and gas facilities with enhanced oil recovery (EOR). These are the results from a project Floating Power Plant (FPP) has just finished with Lundin Energy Norway, NOV-APL, Semco Maritime, Cefront Technologies, and Aalborg University using floating wind and wave power to support an offshore oil and gas facility. The project developed three different designs to see if the concepts set up by the partners were usable solutions from an engineering point of view and as a commercial business case. Intermittent direct power—a simple integration of floating wind and wave power into an oil and gas facility Baseload power—based on the intermittent direct power design, energy storage in the form of batteries, and diesel generators that have been integrated to provide baseload or partial baseload power EOR—integration of a full EOR-system placed on FPP's platform, enabling 10,000 m3 processed water injection per day with a minimum injection rate of 5,000 m3 "All three designs proved to be viable and promising from both a technical and a business point of view, and they can be used in different commercial situations."

TC Energy confirmed on Wednesday that it has halted the construction of its Keystone XL pipeline after newly inaugurated US President Joe Biden canceled the project’s federal permit in one of his first executive actions. Biden announced that he would revoke the pipeline’s approval last May during his presidential campaign. Calgary-based TC Energy said pending unspecified “intervening actions” the move will eliminate thousands of jobs and result in a major financial loss. The cancellation comes less than a year after Biden’s predecessor, US President Donald Trump, approved the federal permits in March to allow the transborder pipeline to be built. In April, when oil prices collapsed to historic levels, Calgary-based TC Energy began work on the $8-billion pipeline with the help of $1.1 billion in financial assistance from the Alberta government.

Aberdeen Renewable Energy Group (AREG) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) to analyze, develop, and implement space-enabled technology and services to support the renewable energy sector. The organizations will work together to foster the development of space-utilizing applications to support technical and business innovation in the renewables sector. The organizations also will evaluate environmental sustainability of energy production and safety of operations. Rita Rinaldo, the head of the Partner-Led and Thematic Initiatives Section at, added, “ESA is strongly positioned to support the implementation of innovative services relying on space assets to support the renewable sector in Europe and beyond. This is not the first reported connection between the energy industry and the space industry.

The Gullfaks A platform is among the facilities included in the contracts. Two Norwegian well-intervention specialists, Altus Intervention AS and Archer Integrated Services AS have been awarded framework contracts for supplying integrated wireline services for well intervention to Equinor’s fixed platforms. The estimated total value of the contracts is close to $120 million per year. The 5-year agreement, beginning in May, includes the provision of fully integrated intervention services including cased-hole mechanical wireline services, tractor and powered mechanical services, and electric-line logging services on a total of 22 installations. Focus areas will include use of technology and digital solutions, emission reductions, operational cost savings, and potentially remote operations by moving personnel from offshore to onshore locations.

Rystad Energy has evaluated who is better prepared. The 2020 drop in awarded contracts was a steep slide of 30% from 2019’s $641 billion. The last time the industry saw a lower total was in 2004, when awarded contracts totaled $317 billion. The supply segment that declined the most in 2020 was construction and installation with a 59% drop, followed by equipment (-46%), stimulation (-45%), and engineering (-41%). Drilling tools and services, seismic and geological and geophysical (G&G), oil country tubular goods (OCTG), land and offshore drillers, subsea umbilicals, risers, and flowlines (SURF), and subsea equipment all declined by between 30% and 40% last year.

Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, and blockchain can play a key role in creating a more sustainable and resilient low-carbon energy system. But first, what is blockchain exactly? Think of it as a decentralized digital ledger that records transactions and stores information such as financial transactions, medical records, and assets. Traditionally, transactional information is stored in one central ledger or database. A blockchain is a ledger, too, but one that stores data in encrypted blocks across a distributed network of computers.

With rising global demands for sustainable transformation in the energy industry, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies play an important role toward a sustainable future. Coupled with contaminants management, CCUS has the potential to deliver sustainable environmental benefits, improve reliability, and increase economic viability. These benefits have attracted the support for CCUS from a wide range of stakeholders in recent years. Mohamed Firouz Asnan, senior vice president of Malaysia petroleum management at Petronas, in his keynote delivery, said, “The time is now, and this is evident in the Petronas carbon-commitment efforts on greenhouse-gas (GHG) reduction through the seven United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. As the country’s resource owner and manager, we have the responsibility to manage and ensure that our gas resources are developed responsibly and efficiently in the most cost-effective manner.

Geothermal Engineering Ltd. (GEL) has launched a tender for the supply of a unit to install and run an electrical submersible pump at the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project (UDDGP) in Cornwall. The ESP will be installed at a maximum depth of 700 m. Closing date for the tender is 9 February. UDDGP is the first geothermal power plant in the UK. It is being funded by a mixture of public and private funds to include the European Regional Development Fund, Cornwall Council, and Thrive Renewables.

The Goliat floating production, storage, and offloading unit is in the Barents Sea where it produces from the first commercial oil field in the northernmost area of the Norwegian continental shelf. Norwegian oil producers Equinor, Aker BP, DNO, and Vår Energi accounted for more than three-quarters of the awards. Norway’s largest producer, Equinor, took home 10 licenses as the operator and seven more as a partner. Eight of these licenses are for blocks in the North Sea and nine are in the Norwegian Sea. But it was Sweden’s Lundin Petroleum that received the highest number of licenses at 19, seven of which are as the operator.

Two deepwater rigs that were likely destined for the scrap yard appear to have found a second lease on life as offshore launchpads. The development was first reported on Twitter by reporters with NASASpaceFlight, an independent website covering the space industry, who shared photos of a drilling rig in Brownsville, Texas, which sits along the Gulf of Mexico. The images showed a rig named Deimos and the website reported that a second rig named Phobos is also sitting quayside in Brownsville. The semisubmersibles both measure 240 × 255 ft and were formerly known as ENSCO 8500 and ENSCO 8501. According to public reports they were sold for $3.5 million apiece by Valaris in August.