Europe

Shell UK Ltd has signed a contract with Mermaid Subsea Services Ltd to utilise the offshore company's services for a multi-year engineering, preparation, removal and disposal (EPRD) well head severance (WHS) project in the North Sea.

Planned in three annual batches, the first phase of the decommissioning project is scheduled to begin later this year. The WHS solution will be delivered by a bespoke vessel for which Mermaid will be accumulating key stakeholders accross the supply chain. 

The initial campaign will involve the removal of well head protection covers from the sea floor, before lifting them to the surface for transportation onshore.

The well head flow base structures will then be retrieved using specialist tooling.

The final activity will cover well head severance and recovery operations, for which bespoke underwater cutting tooling and techniques will be deployed by Mermaid.

Each stage of the project will be followed by clearance of debris, as well as seabed and over trawl surveys where necessary. All the recovered materials from the project will be put to reuse and recycling. 

Milestone contract

Scott Cormack, Regional Director for Mermaid Subsea Services (UK), said, “This a milestone contract for Mermaid and we are very grateful to Shell for putting their faith in our team. We look forward to kicking off work this year.

“The North Sea is on the cusp of a multi-decade decommissioning boom and Mermaid plans to be front and centre of that with our bespoke solutions and leading expertise.”

SLB and Ormat Technologies have entered into a strategic collaboration to develop integrated geothermal projects which reduce the associated risks while improving overall economics and ensuring long-term reliability.

The integrated offering will provide developers with a comprehensive suite of solutions, including exploration and resource assessments to power plant commissioning and operation.

Both SLB and Ormat will provide operators with traditional and next-gen geothermal solutions, such as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and advanced geothermal solutions (AGS), with SLB obtaining a license of Ormat’s ESG patent.

The collaboration combines Ormat’s expertise in geothermal fields and project development, power plant design, manufacturing, operations, and engineering, procurement and construction capabilities with SLB’s expertise in reservoir characterization, well construction, completions and production technologies.

Irlan Amir, Vice President of Renewables and Energy Efficiency for SLB, said, “Geothermal energy represents a significant opportunity for the energy transition, providing clean, baseload renewable power. By combining our expertise with Ormat’s, we can help customers unlock the full potential of geothermal resources and accelerate the deployment of this sustainable energy source.”

Paul Thomsen, Vice President of Business Development at Ormat Technologies, commented, “Ormat’s world class geothermal development and technology expertise perfectly complements SLB’s significant reservoir knowledge and well construction technologies and expertise. Together, we can deliver more projects, offering exceptional value to our developers and contributing to a cleaner energy future.”

The Ministry of Energy has awarded Equinor the Albondigas and Kinno licenses in the North Sea for CO2 storage development. 

Considered important building blocks for developing the Norwegian Continental Shelf into a leading area for CO2 storage in Europe, each of the licenses are expected to have a storage capacity of 5 million tons of CO2 annually.

"We are very pleased to see the Norwegian authorities have made new CCS storage acreage available for exploration and that we have been awarded these two licenses. We see that demand for CO2 storage is increasing in several countries, and it is crucial to bring forward new CO2 storages quickly, so that we can offer industrial solutions that can support large scale decarbonisation of hard-to-abate industries in Europe," said Grete Tveit, Senior Vice President for Low Carbon Solutions in Equinor.

Equinor expect 4-8% real base project returns for its early phase CO2 storage business, and further value uplift potential when commercial markets are developed.

Equinor is maturing a ship-based solution and a massive pipeline to connect industrial emissions in Europe with storage opportunities at the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The planned pipeline named CO2 Highway Europe will have capacity to transport 25-35 million tons of CO2 per year from Belgium and France.

The Albondigas and Kinno licenses will serve as additional storage opportunities to the Smeaheia storage license which was awarded to Equinor in 2022. Smeaheia will be used as the anchor storage for this pipeline development.

Equinor is also about to complete the first phase of the Northern Lights CO2 transport and storage facility together with Shell and Total Energies. It will be ready to receive CO2 by the second half of this year.

"Scale-up of CO2 transport and storage is essential to meet the interest and demand for this type of services. Gaining access to more CO2 storage capacity aligns well with our ambition of having 30 to 50 million tons of CO2 transport and storage capacity per year by 2035," said Tveit.

The UK National Geothermal Centre (NGC) has been launched to accelerate the UK geothermal sector and enhance the role it can play in decarbonising the UK’s future energy mix.

With funding from the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), Durham University, SHIFT Geothermal, and The Reece Foundation, the NGC aims to support research and innovation, develop expertise and drive the creation of a policy, regulation and investment framework which enables geothermal advancement. It will drive collaboration between government, industry, and academia, promoting the integration of geothermal energy into the future renewable energy mix as a low carbon option for heating homes and industries, and power generation.

The geothermal sector has the potential to meet 10GW of the UK’s projected heating demand and 1.5GW of the anticipated electricity demand by 2050. Geothermal expansion could create 50,000 jobs for the future and result in an annual reduction of 10 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions.

Significant step

Nigel Lees, chair of the NGC, said, “The launch of the National Geothermal Centre today represents a significant step in realising the opportunities that geothermal energy provides the UK. For several decades there has been a growing and meaningful contribution to our understanding of geothermal potential in the UK, yet we remain in the nascent stages of development with pockets of knowledge and expertise.

“The Centre will embrace and build on this, working collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure a common understanding of the opportunities and challenges whilst giving a consistent voice and advocacy to fully unlock the geothermal potential in the UK and play a crucial part in the delivery of our net zero ambitions.”

Norwegian energy producer Equinor will deploy Emerson's suite of Roxar downhole monitoring tools to achieve optimal results from the Rosebank oil and gas field offshore the United Kingdom. 

With an estimated capacity of more than 300 million barrels of recoverable oil resources, the Rosebank field is considered a significant asset in meeting the UK’s energy security requirements. The first phase of the Rosebank field development will involve a refurbished, electrification-ready floating production storage and offloading vessel connected to a subsea production system. Startup of the Rosebank field’s first phase is planned for 2026-2027. 

Uninterrupted data coverage from active wells 

Emerson's advanced well completion monitoring systems enable advanced oil recovery techniques, optimise reservoir performance and verify well integrity in real time. A challenging task amid harsh environment conditions, the Roxar integrated downhole network technology provides an uninterrupted coverage of pressure and temperature data from active wells, which leads to safe operation, production optimisation and well integrity maintenance.

While Europe has often spearheaded geothermal progress and innovation, the past few years have played witness to a stagnated playing field as financial blockades and unclear legislation has somewhat slowed the project pipeline. However, after funding through both private and public channels continues to gain momentum, the region has the resources and drive to become a major market player within the geothermal market once again.

In January 2024, the European Union Parliament overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution that called for a new geothermal energy strategy to be implemented across the region. The resolution calls for an industrial alliance on geothermal energy, as well as the installation of an insurance programme to mitigate against financial risk. This endorsement is a huge step for the region and will hopefully provide reassurance and confidence in the market to warrant further investment.

However, while the parliamentary push is a step in the right direction, concerns are still being drawn around the commerciality of the commodity for geothermal, and the debate about whether the long-term payoff and associated risks are worth the investment.

With the above issues and more industry insights set to be discussed at the upcoming GTS EU 2024 later this year, including topics around expediting growth, new technology and scalability, enhancing the transition, attracting external stakeholders and commercial considerations, the bespoke outlook offers an alternative look into the pioneering industry.

Click here to access the free-to-read report.

An interdisciplinary joint project on geothermal development in Germany, AGENS has received a €44.4mn grant from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), based on a resolution of the German Bundestag. 

Defined as the 'Demonstration of an adaptive, multilateral reservoir development for geothermal energy for seismicity and cost mitigation in the Upper Rhine Graben' that will be delivered over a span of five years, the AGENS initiative involves geopfalz, Institute for Geothermal Resource Management at ITB gGmbH, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, Ruhr University Bochum, geomecon GmbH, and the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg.

In a sub-project of the AGENS that will be spearheaded by Stadtwerke Speyer GmbH-subsidiary Geopfalz GmbH & Co. KG in Schifferstadt city, Geopfalz will create 'Rhein-Pfalz' – the first deep geothermal duplicate, a basic building block for geothermal heat supply. This will ensure decarbonisation of the heat supply in Speyer and Schifferstadt, creating public awareness on sustainable living. 

Reasearchers will also take into account the larger economic impact of the project. 

With an allocation of  €24.3mn, the project will look into a pioneering exploration technique, in which several side boreholes are drilled from a main borehole. The reservoir can be developed in a geomechanically and hydraulically optimised manner that reduces the risks of induced seismicity while increasing productivity.

A remaining funding of around €20.1mn will go to the other project partners.

Geo-Energie Suisse AG is an associate partner in the AGENS project. The project also involes the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which is supporting as part of the supplementary project LISAGENS with an additional funding volume of approximately €1.8mn to address questions of basic research.

DeepOcean, an ocean services provider that is dedicated to enabling the energy transition and sustainable use of ocean resources, has been awarded a significant recycling project on the UK continental shelf.

Provided by an unnamed international operation, the contract will see DeepOcean oversee project management and engineering operations for a comprehensive campaign that will span more than 120 days. With offshore decommissioning activities scheduled this year, the project is segmented into five sub-campaigns including the recovery of concrete mattresses, spools, flexibles, flowlines, jumpers, suction anchor, multiple structures and final debris clearance with the addition of a subsea rock installation campaign to conduct final seabed remediation.

Gary Scott, UK Commercial Manager & Legal Counsel at DeepOcean, commented, “We are delighted to have been selected to perform this decommissioning project and this contract award reflects our team's proficiency in executing complex subsea projects with a focus on safety, environmental responsibility, and efficiency.”

To execute the workscope, DeepOcean has stated that it will employ its advanced fleet including the Edda Freya, a state-of-the-art vessel suited for operations worldwide. The ship will utilise its 2,300 sq m of deck space and 400Te AHC crane, with two moonpool launched 220 HP Kysdesign WROVs. The Normand Jarstein will also be deployed.

As outlined by DeepOcean, upon successful recovery, all items will be transported and offloaded onshore for appropriate reuse, recycling, or disposal, adhering to stringent environmental regulations. Through close collaboration with DeepOcean’s selected waste management contractor, reuse options for all concrete mattresses will be sought, demonstrating our commitment to the environment and needs of our client with a continued focus to maximise re-use for all recovered materials.

Earlier this year the company made use of Decom Engineering to execute a decommissioning project in the same region. Click here to discover more.