Guest Editorial: A Net-Zero Future Full of Opportunities for a New North Sea

Abstract

Six months ago, if asked what the biggest challenge was facing our industry and perhaps the world, I would have said, “The transition to a low-carbon/net-zero world.” Who knew that the biggest threat would actually be an invisible, but devastatingly brutal, enemy? And what impact will that have on our futures? Not only on our commitment to net zero but to our industry’s survival and to the industrialized world we know. There will be many views, but as I lead a technology organization, I believe we can use this “industrial reset” to chart a new course for our industry and hopefully for our planet. This is a time for us to capitalize on the amazing collaboration we have seen locally, regionally, and globally, as society has pulled together to fight COVID-19. Can we not put this can-do attitude into action on our biggest global challenges and work together to find a solution? While many of the changes required will be either behavioral or regulatory, a number will be technology-led - and that is where technical industries can have the biggest positive impact in the coming years. As I look around the world, I can already see countries launching major public/private initiatives to grasp the low-carbon agenda. These are partnerships where businesses innovate and collaborate, with government backing, to create powerful collectives driving both decarbonization and economic growth. I strongly believe this is the route we should take in the UK - forming deep collaborations to capitalize on our expertise and collective know-how to transform the North Sea into a low-carbon powerhouse. Progress Made So Far The good news is, we have already begun. The UK Continental Shelf has already committed to a net-zero future in the industry’s Roadmap 2035, introduced by Oil and Gas UK. The Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) has been supporting the industry with more than £150 million co-invested in emerging technologies in the past 3 years. And in 2019, we opened a center dedicated to the development and deployment of net-zero technologies. We have worked closely with industry to develop a technology vision and road-map that focuses on three big goals: Reducing emissions from existing operations Developing new technologies - including carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and also hydrogen - to unlock the potential of our assets and expertise Transforming to a net-zero industry in the longer term No one imagines this will happen overnight - the Committee on Climate Change, for example, recognizes that oil and gas production will continue to 2050 and beyond - but at the same time, it predicts massive growth in other sectors, most notably in offshore wind, blue hydrogen, and CCUS. The current confluence of global challenges, therefore, offers a huge opportunity for the industry to set itself new goals on efficiency, performance, carbon footprint, and the transition to a net-zero future.