The North Sea is becoming increasingly busy – but coordinated planning, technology and open data can allow oil, gas, wind and carbon storage to co-exist, according to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA).
Speaking at the All-Energy Conference in Glasgow, NSTA Director of New Ventures Andy Brooks said, “Different energy activities can co-locate and co-exist offshore, with spatial overlaps managed through early engagement and co-ordination, careful sequencing of activities, and deployment of specific technology.”
He announced a call for nominations for new carbon storage licensing areas and cited real-world examples, such as the Dudgeon windfarm overlapping with the Blythe and Elgood fields and the Walney Extension operating near the Rhyl gas field. “Windfarm leases and oil and gas licences are already co-locating in several places,” he said.
Mr Brooks also pushed back on the belief that carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot share space with other offshore sectors.
“Opinions on that have started to mellow,” he said, highlighting new technologies like unmanned surface vessels and fibre optic sensing, which reduce physical footprint and emissions.
He added that legacy oil and gas seismic data is now being reused to identify carbon storage sites and that CCS monitoring tools are becoming standard.
Concluding, Mr Brooks said, “We require industry and regulatory coordination, transparency and a willingness to come together to resolve the problems we must overcome to help achieve our net zero goals.”
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