Issue 186 November
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Incorporating
Going for
gold
NEWMONT IS THE WORLD’S LEADING GOLD COMPANY AND A PRODUCER OF COPPER, SILVER, ZINC AND LEAD – BOTH ITS OPERATIONS IN AUSTRALIA ARE SEEING SOME EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENTS
A firm foundation
The digital revolution is making mining operations safer, more predictable and more responsive to market changes
A vital element
The evidence is mounting that hydrogen will be a key component of any future net-zero carbon scenario for the UK
Five-year agreement: Cyberhawk secures contract for the provision of drone services New technology: Ørsted signs a multimillion-pound deal for the GUS system
EDITOR Editors Chairman Andrew Schofield Managing Director Joe Woolsgrove Editor Libbie Hammond - libbie@schofieldpublishing.com Assistant Editor Will Daynes Staff Writer Alex McDonald
Working in some of the most remote and inhospitable locations, Newmont’s teams continue to excavate their precious ores, while also under the threat of coronavirus
Art Editor/Production Manager Fleur Daniels Art Editor David Howard Advertising Designer Rebecca Side Sales Director Alasdair Gamble Operations Director Philip Monument Operations Manager Natalie Griffiths Research Managers Rachel Harper, Jo-Ann Jeffery Ben Richell, Kieran Shukri Editorial Researchers Adam Blanch, Mark Cowles Jeff Goldenberg, Mark Kafourous Tarjinder Kaur-D’Silva, James Page Wendy Russell, Richard Saunders Advertising Sales Johanna Bailey, Mark Cawston Alex Hartley, Dave King Theresa McDonald, Ibby Mundhir Web Sales web@schofieldpublishing.com Subscriptions i.kidd@schofieldpublishing.com
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Gold standard
So, November’s EOG sees us back in lockdown. I hope you are all doing OK and keeping business going in these strange times – the oil and gas industry is used to challenging conditions, but this is definitely new territory for us all. Speaking of new territory brings me very neatly to our cover story this month – it was really interesting to feature an Australian company in the pages of EOG and I also loved getting a closer look at mining. Since we’ve integrated EOG with Energy & Mining it’s been my ambition to make sure that the sector continues to get its own coverage and I am thrilled to get a mining company on the cover. Vince De Carolis, General Manager Tanami for Newmont Australia, shares some fascinating insights about the business and its expansion and investment plans. Working in some of the most remote and inhospitable locations, Newmont’s teams continue to excavate their precious ores, while also under the threat of coronavirus. It makes my comfy office chair at home seem a very privileged position.
Energy, Oil & Gas Magazine
EDITOR LIBBIE HAMMOND @EOG_magazine PLEASE NOTE: The opinions expressed by contributors and advertisers within this publication do not necessarily coincide with those of the editor and publisher. Every reasonable effort is made to ensure that the information published is accurate, and correct at time of writing, but no legal responsibility for loss occasioned by the use of such information can be accepted by the publisher. All rights reserved. The contents of the magazine are strictly copyright, the property of Schofield Publishing, and may not be copied, stored in a retrieval system, or reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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REGULARS
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Mining Automation in the mining industry is on a roll. The digital revolution is making operations safer, more
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predictable and more responsive to market changes
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Maintenance Upstream organizations are going from seeing digitalization as a ‘nice-to-have,’ with some runway to plan the future, to instead an essential initiative
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Hydrogen Hydrogen does not have all the answers but it will play a vital role in decarbonization as its flexibility
Mining
allows it to fill technology gaps
10 Sector outlook Arve Johan Kalleklev goes through some of the results from DNV GL’s 2020 Energy Transition Outlook as the
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industry prepares for deep decarbonization
12 News Some of the recent developments within the oil and gas industry
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Maintenance
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Hydrogen
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PROFILES
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Global Offshore
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Newmont Australia – Tanami Expansion 2 Project
SIMEC Atlantis Energy Limited
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GeoSource Energy Inc
ShalePro Energy Services
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A firm foundation
AS IOT AND AUTOMATION PROLIFERATE IN MINING, MANAGED CONNECTIVITY BECOMES CRITICAL TO OPERATIONS. BY JAMES TREVELYAN
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utomation in the mining industry is on a roll. The market for automation technology and equipment is growing at seven per cent a year and is forecast to reach $6.2 billion in sales by 2025, according to Grand View Research. Digital transformation is creeping into everything from trucks, drills and trains to back-office functions like procurement and supply chain logistics. It is no wonder. Mining revenues are driven by global commodity markets, so lowering costs and improving efficiency is the only effective way to shore up the bottom line. Health and safety run a close second to cost and efficiency gains as a reason for adopting the Internet of Things. That is why the biggest mining companies are now splashing out on automated drill rigs, robots, drones, autonomous vehicles and driverless trains.
Call it the Connected Mine. That is shorthand for a bundle of individual solutions that do more than automate a process and make each operation part of a comprehensive management platform and ensure that each mine has access to the information and services needed to support and protect onsite managers, workers and assets.
A comprehensive architecture for the Connected Mine includes these elements: •
•
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Shaky foundation? Like other industries, mining companies are finding that the same investments that strengthen their operations can create new vulnerabilities. The more digital systems at work onsite, the more critical secure and reliable communications become. Without a well-thought-out communications architecture, the automation house is built on sand.
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Onsite Connectivity. Wireless communications by private LTE, Wi-Fi and mesh radio networks connecting people and devices. Backhaul Connectivity. Depending on the mine’s location, a mix of satellite, LTE, microwave and optical fiber provide robust connectivity to regional or head offices and the public switched network. Autonomous Loaders, Trucks and Drills. Autonomous technology is handling repetitive operations at lower cost while improving safety. Vehicles navigate using signals from wireless beacons that provide accuracy to the centimeter. Asset Trackers. Hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment are at risk at major mines. Asset tracking technology can show the location of equipment and
MINING
•
•
•
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automatically trigger alerts whenever it leaves its assigned location. Sensors and Actuators. IoT applications gather data from sensors throughout the mine for real-time analysis at a central control center, which can remotely activate equipment in response, either manually or automatically. Video Cameras. More than mere surveillance, video analytics can automatically identify and flag human errors that may endanger people and operations, from missing hard-hats to unsafe handling of explosives. Drones. Mining operators are deploying drones to capture video feeds of mining waste piles and subject them to analytics that generate 3D models and assess their safety. Automation Platforms. From sensor and video data, mining operators can deploy dashboards that display the health of the entire mining site, trigger alerts and notifications and permit operators, both onsite and remote, to drill down to identify the source of problems.
Advances in performance and price have given mine operators cost-effective connectivity options that can make the connected mine of the future a good business proposition today. Getting those options to deliver value in the field, however, requires a depth of technical knowledge and experience with the logistical and regulatory challenges of global communications.
The future of the Connected Mine Mining will continue to be a cyclical business subject to surges and declines in commodity prices, as well as being a challenging way of life for miners and managers alike. The digital revolution is making mining operations safer, more predictable and more responsive to changes in markets. That is attracting a new generation of innovators ready to build a stronger industry for the future.
Keeping the data flowing Realizing the connected mine takes more than technology. It involves a fundamental shift in connectivity. To achieve breakthroughs in safety, productivity and profitability, data must flow at high volume with no interruptions or degradation of service. Because mines operate in remote locations, delivering that connectivity requires the integration of multiple communication technologies into a high-performance whole. Many companies may be involved, but there needs to be a single point of accountability. Key elements in connectivity for the connected mine include: • Multi-mode terminals that support multiple satellite bands, microwave links and cellular service, and interconnect seamlessly with local wired and wireless (Wi-Fi, private LTE, LORA) networks. Terminal software manages the logistics of making and breaking connections, from virtual SIM cards to least-cost routing. • A dedicated global network of satellites, teleports, fiber and high-performance cellular base stations in strategic locations, plus high-capacity peering with wired and mobile networks, to ensure connectivity from remote locations to the rest of the world. • Intelligence in the network that identifies available transmission routes and automatically switches service between them to achieve the best performance at lowest cost. At the highest levels, using technologies like SD-WAN, it automatically analyzes and manages traffic among routes offering very different kinds of performance, providing customers with predictable quality of service and better utilization of available bandwidth.
SPEEDCAST INTERNATIONAL LTD James Trevelyan is Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Speedcast International Ltd, the world’s most trusted communications and IT services provider, delivering critical communications solutions to the Maritime, Energy, Mining, Media, Telecom, Cruise, NGO, Government, and Enterprise sectors. With more satellite capacity than any other provider, Speedcast enables faster, seamless pole-to-pole coverage from a global hybrid satellite, fiber, cellular, microwave, MPLS and IP transport network with direct access to public cloud platforms. For further information please visit: www.speedcast.com
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answers OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE IN A WORLD OF COMPLEXITY. BY RON BECK
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he world of energy just got more complicated, and that certainly applies to operational excellence in oil and gas operations. The industry is finding itself in a challenging position while operating oil and gas fields with all but the most essential workers remote and key systems not being well set up to support operational excellence imperatives remotely. For that reason, upstream organizations are going from seeing digitalization as a ‘nice-to-have,’ with some runway to plan the future, to instead an essential initiative, a helterskelter race, to find new ways to apply technology for maintaining and improving operational excellence in the oil patch. The market says organizations must operate its oilfields at a lower break-even cost per barrel. This is most likely going to include taking people out of the oilfield (for their health and safety) and reducing operating and capital expenditures. But at the same time, safe operating conditions must be maintained to achieve increased reliability. Even when operating at lower production rates, trimming OPEX and with reduced staff on site in the field; there is still the same, maybe even an elevated need to improve safety reliability and productivity.
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Companies today are looking to digital enables; here is example of how these are working: Prescriptive maintenance using machine learning An insight of the past five months in the upstream world, is that artificial intelligence (AI and machine learning) which has started to impact other industries in meaningful ways, must be adopted on an accelerated basis in upstream. What AI will do is provide prescriptive and actionable insights, based on operating data, to provide a ‘feed forward’ planning ahead to take actions which will preserve production uptime and avoid infrastructure degradation. The result: Improved safety, reduced risk and uptime. This also saves capital. Today, ten per cent of capital investment in capacity is tied up handling unplanned downtime.
Industrial AI Petroleum and chemical engineering principles are too complex for data algorithms to move forward without domain knowledge. This is where industrial AI comes into play, putting domain expertise guardrails around advanced data analytics, and achieving what we call a democratization of AI for the energy industry. Applications usable and valuable
MAINTENANCE
Also, the adaptive control technology, is constantly monitoring the effectiveness of its settings in the context of changing hydrocarbon compositions and pressure. The result, multi million dollars in benefits per platform per year from running production closer to the optimum, coupled with increased uptime of equipment and safer operations.
Safety focused digital twin Safe operations are another crucial area that digital technology can fundamentally help with. Process safety in complex operations, such as gas processing and offshore gathering systems, requires modelling and constant revalidation of safety envelopes. These models exist, and now that advanced techniques can be applied, can be put online to establish things such as ability of production expansion to be safely operated, impact of reconfiguration, impact of deferred maintenance and the like. Medco Energi developed a digital twin model of their offshore gas production infrastructure, to evaluate field development against HIPPS safe operating envelopes. This enabled a brownfield operating company to maximize production while increasing production, achieving over 20 million dollars in value, in reduced cost per well, from the digital twin in one year.
Sustainable digital twin
in the oilfield, which capitalize on machine learning but don’t require a data scientist. It is the confluence of data plus multivariate machine learning analytics plus expertise. A major FPSO operator in Southeast Asia has implemented this technology to monitor production equipment health from a central onshore location. Production pumps, injection pumps, produced water filtration and handling, are all monitored through data streams and prescriptive maintenance.
Optimize well production Advanced process control, a staple of downstream oil and gas operational excellence, has finally moved into the upstream world. Forced by the need for increased agility and increased well productivity, a global top-five upstream operator has implemented the most advanced form of process control, Adaptive Process Control, on multiple production platforms. This solution takes the minute-by-minute decisions of an operator to adjust well chokes, compressors, and separators, out of the hands of an on-platform operator and into the hands of an automated system that can exactly translate the operating strategy set by the reservoir engineers into real time optimized production settings, which are now monitored by an operator, who can be onshore.
Asset models are invaluable strategic tools in reducing carbon footprint in production. A digital twin model can calculate what is known as a ‘virtual sensor’, that is a calculation in place of a physical sampling device. In one example in the Middle East Region, ADNOC put in place a digital twin model that measured, across the giant Shah gas field, energy use, utility costs, water use, and fugitive emissions. By making this information actionable to all field workers, the system provided actionable advice to improve these sustainability metrics, for instance eliminating one per cent of hydrocarbon losses, which then were turned from an emissions problem into a contribution to revenue. In brief, there are a number of digital technologies that oil and gas companies can be looking to employ to help them navigate the complexity that is the energy universe in 2020. All while addressing their most urgent operational excellence needs and most importantly, keeping workers safer and making operations more reliable and better performing.
ASPEN TECHNOLOGY INC Ron Beck is Director at Aspen Technology Inc, a global leader in asset optimisation software. Its solutions address complex, industrial environments where it is critical to optimise the asset design, operation and maintenance lifecycle. AspenTech uniquely combines decades of process modelling expertise with artificial intelligence. Its purpose-built software platform automates knowledge work and builds sustainable competitive advantage by delivering high returns over the entire asset lifecycle. As a result, companies in capital-intensive industries can maximise uptime and push the limits of performance, running their assets safer, greener, longer and faster. For further information please visit: www.AspenTech.com
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A vital element HYDROGEN WILL HAVE A KEY ROLE ON THE ROAD TO DECARBONIZATION IN AREAS THAT OTHER SOLUTIONS CANNOT REACH, SAYS DR GARETH HINDS
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he UK Government is committed to reducing our impact on the environment and transforming our energy system to make it cleaner and more affordable, through the Clean Growth Strategy and the 25 Year Environment Plan, as well as collaborating and supporting other countries to reduce their impacts. Domestic policy commits the UK to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050; these targets are among the most ambitious globally and the next few years will see record investment in clean growth innovation. To meet these objectives, and for energy to become more affordable, clean and secure, a continued shift away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources is required, supported by carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) and nuclear power. Hydrogen will be a key component of any future net-zero carbon scenario for the UK. It has historically experienced cycles of interest within the UK and
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internationally, but up until now has largely been discounted due to the immaturity and relatively high cost of the technologies in question. This is changing. There is an ever-growing evidence base – of roadmaps, reports, projects and practical infrastructure implementations – demonstrating that hydrogen can play a critical role in the efforts to decarbonize the UK’s energy system. There is also increasing awareness that while significant decarbonization is possible without hydrogen, it will be very difficult to get to net-zero without it as there are many sectors where hydrogen is likely to be the only zeroemission energy vector capable of replacing fossil fuels without significant increase in cost or loss of utility. Driven in part by a significant reduction in the cost of offshore wind and partly by government incentives, there has been a huge decrease in CO2 emissions from the electricity sector in the last few years. It is now responsible for just 12 per cent of UK CO2 emissions, compared to 34 per cent in 1990. However, within the UK’s electricity
HYDROGEN
grid system, there is a growing need for grid-scale storage technologies to mitigate the intermittency of renewables and enable the continued transition away from fossil fuels. Batteries are well suited to grid balancing over short timescales but they are not designed to hold their charge for long periods of time. For longer term storage, hydrogen is a more realistic option and can be produced via electrolysis of water using electricity generated from renewable energy systems during times of high supply/low demand. It can be stored for use during periods of high demand or transferred to the gas grid for distribution and use in other applications.
Attractive option Despite the progress within the electricity sector, there is still a long way to go in other sectors. Heating and transport are both still heavily dependent on oil and gas and make up the bulk of the other 88 per cent of UK CO2 emissions. In the UK, 23 million homes are currently dependent on gas for heat, with most of the supply coming from nonrenewable natural gas sources. The Committee on Climate Change has estimated that by 2050 around 60 per cent of heat demand in domestic, commercial and industrial applications could come from hydrogen. Hydrogen combusts similarly to the natural gas that is commonly used within homes today so it would not require a change in habits or any major changes to the existing heating system. Unlike natural gas however, hydrogen does not produce CO2 or other pollutants when combusted, only water, making it an attractive option to support decarbonization. Hydrogen could either be blended with natural gas as a medium-term option or combusted directly. Transporting hydrogen via the gas grid would enable the UK to utilize existing gas infrastructure assets and could reduce the costs associated with electrification of the energy system. As the UK’s National Metrology Institute, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is working with UK gas network operators to assess the feasibility of converting the existing natural gas grid to hydrogen, which would allow coupling of heating and transport applications. NPL is also carrying out cutting edge research to support improvements in performance, lifetime and cost of hydrogen fuel cells and electrolyzers to enable large scale adoption of these technologies. One potential drawback of hydrogen is that fuel cell performance is sensitive to trace levels of contaminants that can be introduced during hydrogen production, storage and distribution. NPL is working with other European research institutes to quantify the impact of key contaminants on fuel cell stack performance
under representative automotive conditions, including fuel recirculation. This important work is feeding into revision of international standards for hydrogen purity in automotive applications, de-risking the business case for investment in hydrogen infrastructure.
Vital role Sulphur-based odorants used in natural gas are not suitable for use in fuel cells due to their significant poisoning effect. NPL is involved in a number of research programs to screen non-sulphur-based odorants for hydrogen, as well as investigating sources of contamination from the existing gas grid and their impact on fuel cell performance. Within the transport sector, it is important that we overcome the electric battery versus hydrogen fuel cell battle. These technologies are highly complementary and shouldn’t be seen as competing. Neither technology is able to decarbonize this sector alone. Hydrogen is well suited to heavy duty applications, long distance transport and seasonal storage of energy due to its very low mass and the ability to be stored for longer periods of time. However, due to their much higher efficiency in converting between chemical and electrical energy, batteries are the most suitable technology for light duty applications over short timescales, including passenger vehicles and short-term grid balancing. It is therefore important that hydrogen is not deployed in these areas unless there are good reasons for doing so, e.g. local availability or use of fleet vehicles. Deployment of batteries and hydrogen according to their respective strengths will minimize the risk of stranded assets in the future. Like every technology, hydrogen does not have all the answers but it will play a vital role in decarbonization as its flexibility allows it to fill gaps in decarbonization of energy that other technologies cannot reach.
NPL Dr Gareth Hinds is a leading voice on hydrogen technology in the UK and Science Area Leader in Electrochemistry at NPL. NPL is the UK’s National Metrology Institute, providing the measurement capability that underpins the UK's prosperity and quality of life. Based in Teddington, south-west London, NPL employs over 600 scientists. NPL also has regional bases across the UK, including at the University of Surrey, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Cambridge and the University of Huddersfield's 3M Buckley Innovation Centre. For further information please visit: www.npl.co.uk
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Time for action TO PREPARE FOR DEEP DECARBONISATION AND THE IMPENDING TRANSFORMATION OF THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY, ARVE JOHAN KALLEKLEV IS ENCOURAGING STAKEHOLDERS TO ADOPT A SHIFT IN MINDSET AND BEGIN TAKING ACTION
D
NV GL’s 2020 Energy Transition Outlook (Figure 1) predicts that without greater effort to meet low or zero-carbon emissions by mid-century, the world will miss the 2°C limit for global warming under the Paris Agreement.
still hold a key role in the energy mix in 2050 as it is forecast to supply half of the world’s energy.
Figure 1: DNV GL published its fourth annual Energy Transition Outlook
Figure 2: World primary energy supply by source
With increasing societal, governmental, investor and industryled pressure to address carbon emissions and climate change issues, the energy transition will become a focal point for the sector – though actions associated with realising these climate ambitions will be slower to materialise.
CO2 emissions not accepted In line with current emissions trends, the 1.5°C carbon budget will be exhausted in 2028 and the 2°C budget in 2051. This points to a 2.3°C warming of the planet by 2100, compared with the pre-industrial level.
Shifting oil demand The report predicts global primary oil demand will fall 13 per cent in 2020, reaching a level not seen since the early 2000s. Oil will retake its place as the world’s largest energy source in 2021, before giving way to natural gas in the mid-2020s (Figure 2). Demand will see a brief recovery towards 2023, before gradually decreasing to half of its 2018 level (in real terms) by 2050. Oil and gas will
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The oil and gas industry will need to prepare itself for an energy system that does not accept the release of carbon emissions. However, our predictions show that CO2 emissions will remain stubbornly high until the mid-2030s, falling just 15 per cent in the next 15 years, before then dropping 40 per cent in the 15 years to 2050. Emissions intensity (energy-related CO2 emissions/energy demand) will remain elevated in regions and countries which supply the world’s oil and gas, predominantly in areas with low production costs or easily scalable operations. Financial benefits, particularly in the short term, as well as a domestic economic reliance on fossil fuels, will result in continued oil use in these areas (Figure 3).
SECTOR OUTLOOK combined are expected to account for 66 per cent of the world’s CCS deployment (Figure 4).
Figure 3: Emissions intensity of final energy demand by region
The report asserts that in the UK, a total of 13.1 MM metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) will be from oil and gas production. Extraction emissions account for 10.1 MM of CO2, the rest is due to flaring. In comparison, in 2019, Norway’s oil and gas production emissions were 4 MM of CO2 and Denmark’s 1.4 MM1. To achieve this decline, there should be a focus on scaling the decarbonisation of natural gas, which even though it is predicted to be the world’s largest energy source at midcentury, has seen little progress in technologies for cutting carbon. Key solutions include electrification, reducing flaring and venting, increased efforts to detect and stem methane leaks, and efficiency gains through digitalisation of the value chain. The electrification of oil and gas assets, including exploration and production rigs, platforms and vessels, is underway. There are already eight partly- or fully-electrified oil and gas fields operating offshore Norway, with a further eight fields covered under sanctioned electrification projects. In the UK, feasibility studies for platform electrification schemes in the central North Sea and west of Shetland are in progress for several companies, with low-emission designs being embedded into future field development plans. The Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) estimates that £430 billion ($557 billion) of new investment will be needed ‘to close the gap on a number of crucial technologies and accelerate their deployment’. Converting the North Sea into an integrated net-zero emissions energy system is forecast to create more than 200,000 jobs and £2.5 trillion ($3.2 trillion) in value to the UK economy2.
CCS as a long-term catalyst Now in its fourth year, the Outlook envisages that the oil and gas sector could become the leading ‘decarbonizer’ of hydrocarbons. Catalyst technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen as a vector fuel are expected to transform the industry after 2035. Complementing renewable electricity, battery technology and alternative lowcarbon fuels, the industry could also become the world’s largest supplier of CCS. However, its uptake will be inhibited by high costs, with the technology not beginning to scale until the 2030s, and not to a significant level until the 2040s. In comparison to last year’s forecast, though policy and technology developments for CCS capacity have almost trebled in the last 12 months it still falls short of climate change targets by mid-century. By then, China and Europe
Figure 4: World CCS capacity by region
An agreement on a carbon price will allow CCS to scale more quickly. If a major country or region is to set a carbon price high enough to make large-scale CCS a reality, this will subsequently lower the cost of the technology in other regions as others follow. Hydrogen will face a similar challenge. There are around ten large projects planned in Europe, mostly around the North Sea, which have a high chance of being operational by 2035. In September, the Norwegian Government proposed to launch a CCS project called ‘Langskip’ (‘Longship’)3. Total’s investment in this project is an estimated NOK17.1bn. Promising projects are also developing in the UK, Denmark and Netherlands, with Ireland and Italy also making progress. The technologies required to accelerate the energy transition are available to us today. But we need to take action and scale these at a much quicker pace to build a decarbonised future for the industry and make a positive impact on the energy transition and climate goals. References 1. https://www.rystadenergy.com/newsevents/news/press-releases/top-north-seaemitter-uk-needs-to-electrify-its-rising-oil-and-gas-output-to-reach-climate-goals/ 2. https://www.theogtc.com/newsroom/news/2020/closing-the-gap-realising-a-netzero-north-sea/ 3. https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/the-government-launches-longship-forcarbon-capture-and-storage-in-norway/id2765288/
DNV GL Arve Johan Kalleklev is Regional Manager Norway & Eurasia with DNV GL – Oil & Gas. DNV GL is the technical advisor to the oil and gas industry. It brings a broader view to complex business and technology risks in global and local markets. Providing a neutral ground for industry cooperation, it creates and shares knowledge with its customers, setting standards for technology development and implementation. From project initiation to decommissioning, its independent experts enable companies to make the right choices for a safer, smarter and greener future. Download a complimentary copy of DNV GL’s Energy Transition Outlook 2020 report here: https://eto.dnvgl.com/2020/index.html#ETO2019-top
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NEWS
Standards collaboration The Open Group, the vendor-neutral technology consortium, and the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) has announced a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will foster more oil and gas industry collaboration for the development of common information standards. The Open Group vision is to
Service delivery
enable the achievement of business objectives through the development of technology standards, enabling global interoperability and Boundaryless Information Flow™ in a secure, reliable, and timely manner.
Solar approval Harmony Energy has received planning permission to build its first solar farm in the UK after plans were approved for the 30MW development near Driffield, East Riding of Yorkshire. Peter Kavanagh, CEO at Harmony Energy, said: “This development will feed into the local electricity network and supply energy for the equivalent of up to 8000 local
Deep Casing Tools (DCT), together with its regional partner for Asia Pac, EFTECH, has successfully run three more of its Turborunner tools with Shell Sarawak, despite challenging conditions heightened by Covid-19. The scope of work, which was awarded to DCT in 2018, required horizontal well completions in six new wells to ensure target depth (TD) could be reached. The work was carried out on the Naga 7 jackup rig located offshore, Miri, Sarawak, which Shell Sarawak contracted from Velesto Drilling in 2018 to support its offshore oil exploration and production, and offshore gas production in the region. Notwithstanding difficult circumstances including tight spots in all six wells, the runs were completed successfully by August 2020 by deploying DCT’s best in class turbine-powered completions tool, Turborunner, which allowed the energy major to reach TD. Neil Hathaway, Regional Manager at DCT, said: “The success of this project is testament to our commitment over the last decade to grow our international capabilities through a network of experienced and dedicated partners around the world. By partnering with EFTECH who have amassed nearly two decades of experience of servicing the offshore sector in the Asia Pac region, we were able to deliver an unrivalled level of service to our customer Shell Sarawak. “It is also another excellent example of our simple innovation which make operations safer and more efficient, even in the most complex and challenging conditions.”
homes. We will also be providing funding to assist in local community projects.” Earlier this year Harmony
Contract extension
Energy completed its first utility scale battery energy storage facility, which was the first in Europe to use Tesla’s Megapack technology.
Renewables for Oz The 500MW Wambo Wind Farm project has secured planning approval from the Queensland state government. The project, located in south-west Queensland, 20km north-east of Jandowae, will comprise up to 110 wind turbines and a 50MW/200MWh battery storage and associated infrastructure. The project is being jointly developed by Cubico Sustainable Investments (Cubico), a long-term owner and operator of renewable energy assets, and Renewable Energy Partners. Construction of Stage 1 of the wind farm is expected to begin in late 2021, creating around 200 jobs.
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Archer has secured a two-year contract extension with a major North Sea operator for the provision of platform drilling operations and maintenance services on seven UK North Sea installations. The extension commenced 1 November 2020 in direct continuation of the current contract. Over the next two years Archer will continue to deliver platform rig drilling operations, maintenance and intervention support activities including where required the provision of Well Services and rental equipment. Furthermore, Archer’s engineering team has been contracted to conduct a rig reactivation and provide brownfield engineering and operation preparational support to the other six assets. Dag Skindlo, CEO of Archer comments: “This extension reflects our client’s continued confidence in our ability to maintain safe operations whilst delivering improvements to both the drilling facilities and to the platform drilling and well intervention operations on their assets. This award is testament to the hard work and dedication of our personnel who have been supporting these assets since 2015 and throughout these challenging times. We firmly believe this contract win is a result of Archer’s continual commitment to provide our clients with solutions to improve well delivery, integrity and performance.”
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New technology Ørsted has signed a multimillion-pound deal with Scottish engineering innovator Pict Offshore to deploy the ‘Get Up Safe’ (GUS) motion-compensated lifting system at the Hornsea Two offshore wind farm. The deal with Pict Offshore means that Hornsea Two will be the first ever offshore wind farm to deploy the GUS system and entirely design out the boat landing structures and ladders on the turbine’s foundations. The addition of the revolutionary
Five-year agreement
GUS system onto each of its 165 wind turbines means external ladders are no longer necessary,
Cyberhawk, the global leader in drone-based inspection and creator of iHawk, a cloud-based asset visualization software, has secured a five-year contract with a global LNG producer for the provision of drone inspection, surveying and data visualization services. The contract will see Cyberhawk focus on collecting engineering-grade inspection data from oil and gas assets in the Middle East, onshore and offshore, which will be delivered as detailed inspection reports via Cyberhawk’s drone data visualization software, iHawk. The contract with the state-owned oil and gas company was secured by Manweir LLC, Cyberhawk’s local partner, which is working closely with the technology firm to build a strong regional presence and establish in country value for local operators. The agreement allows any local energy operator to enlist Cyberhawk’s technology solutions through this contract, making it the preferred drone inspection and visualization partner in key oil producing countries within the Middle East region. Established in 2014, iHawk allows asset teams to view up-to-date, visual data securely in the cloud. The software improves asset management and decision-making by allowing managers to intuitively access inspection data that highlights where they can monitor defects and degradation, before deciding what action should be taken and when.
streamlining the foundation and reducing steelwork requirements – boosting both safety and the potential for construction and through-life cost reductions. With the GUS system in place, technicians will be lifted and lowered directly between crew
REAL COPY
transfer vessel and the platform. This removes the need for
technicians to step between the bow of the vessel and the ladder; a potentially dangerous operation that requires skilled co-ordination to be carried out safely during variable weather conditions, and eliminates a tiring climb, which can
Geologists solve puzzle
be up to 20 metres in length. The GUS systems’ active heave compensation function tracks
Pioneering new research has helped geologists solve a long-standing puzzle that could help pinpoint new, untapped concentrations of some the most valuable rare earth deposits. A team of geologists, led by Professor Frances Wall from the Camborne School of Mines, have discovered a new hypothesis to predict where rare earth elements neodymium and dysprosium could be found. The elements are among the most sought after, because they are an essential part of digital and clean energy manufacturing, including magnets in large wind turbines and electric cars motors. For the new research, scientists conducted a series of experiments that showed sodium and potassium - rather than chlorine or fluorine as previously thought – were the key ingredients for making these rare-earth elements soluble. This is crucial as it determines whether they crystalize – making them fit for extraction – or stayed dissolved in fluids. The experiments could therefore allow geologists to make better predictions about where the best concentrations of neodymium and dysprosium are likely to be found. The results were published in the journal, Science Advances on Friday, October 9th 2020. Professor Frances Wall, leader of the SoS RARE project commented: “This is an elegant solution that helps us understand better where ‘heavy’ rare earths like dysprosium and ‘light’ rare earths like neodymium’ may be concentrated in and around carbonatite intrusions. We were always looking for evidence of chloride-bearing solutions but failing to find it. These results give us new ideas.”
the motion of the vessel deck and automatically adjusts the line position to ensure that transferring technicians are always kept safe, even if the vessel is moving in variable wave and weather conditions.
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A connected future
Global Offshore is part of the Global Marine Group, an innovative market leader in offshore engineering with an enviable track record of successful project execution of over 170 years. Delivering cable installation, repair and trenching services to the offshore renewables, utilities and oil and gas markets, Global Offshore is one of the four business units that makes up the overall Global Marine Group. Mike Daniel, who has been Managing Director at Global
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Offshore for the past three years, began by giving EOG readers some more details on the other divisions. “The other three units are: Global Marine, which provides fiber optic cable solutions to the telecommunications and oil and gas markets, CWind, which delivers a range of project services, CTVs and GWO-accredited training courses to the offshore wind industry, and OceanIQ, which provides unparalleled subsea cable data, survey, route engineering, permitting
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GLOBAL OFFSHORE
Mike Daniel
and consultancy services for telecom and power cable installation projects,” he began, before highlighting some impressive statistics. “The Group has installed over 300,000 kilometers of subsea telecoms cable and more than 1,500km of power cables, performed maintenance operations on 33 per cent of the world’s fiber optic cables and offered engineering services, assets and highly qualified personnel for projects at more than 50 wind farms globally.”
Turning his attention to Global Offshore and its own services, Mike highlighted something that really helps to set it apart in the industry. “We have developed a reputation as a trusted partner, with many clients returning following successfully executed projects,” he said. “These long-standing relationships have been forged through flexibility and an understanding of our client’s needs.” Thanks to this approach, Global Offshore has worked on multiple UK and
Powering platforms through renewables rather than gasdriven generators, or even connecting them to power supplies directly from shore, is seen as a game changer for the industry. This would require a strong, reliable power supply to floating platforms or turbines. We are uniquely experienced when it comes to providing innovative solutions for this industry challenge, having worked at Statoil Gjøa semi-submersible platform in the North Sea, the first ever floating platform to have power supplied by a direct link from shore
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GLOBAL OFFSHORE
European wind farms, as well as conducted numerous operations in oil and gas for major oil companies such as Shell and BP. These operations are carried out by the specialist ships and experienced crews that make Global Offshore unique. With the range of vessels and the very best offshore engineering expertise, the company offers clients flexibility and reduced mobilization times, with a vessel suitable for every eventuality, in any location, worldwide. Mike gave some more details about the two main vessels utilized by Global Offshore. “The Global Symphony is a purpose-built vessel, designed to address the demands of deep-water remote intervention, renewables, construction and survey markets. Built in 2011, the vessel has an extensive 1,400m² deck space, with additional features which enhance her overall utility and productivity, particularly in deep water, trenching and cable operations, where oil and gas and floating offshore wind projects are situated,” he said. The most recent addition to the fleet is the Normand Clipper, which is on longterm charter from Solstad Offshore. “This
joined our fleet in 2020 and we immediately commenced upgrades to the 127.5m cablelaying vessel,” Mike noted. “With the addition of a 4000-ton cable carousel, two 15-ton cable tensioners, a 25-ton quadrant deployment frame and a fully integrated control system, the recent upgrades enable us to lay cable at much higher speeds than traditional methods, while still maintaining our high standards of safety and quality. “The Normand Clipper is proving to be a valuable asset to our customers, with work already completed on both the Danish Kriegers Flak and the Pentland Firth projects. The flexibility built into the vessel back deck design allows it to move quickly between modes, and it is currently being re-mobilized in telecoms mode for an upcoming project.” Due to the recent increased demand from its customers, the company has also quickly mobilized the Normand Cutter, the sister vessel to the Normand Clipper, for additional project support throughout Q4 of 2020. “We also have access to the rest of the Global Marine Group’s fleet, which includes versatile installation and maintenance cable
Normand Clipper in Blyth
23 DEGREES
23 Degrees were awarded works by Global Offshore to undertake 2 x shore end installations as part of SSEN’s cable replacement programme. The project was for the replacement of the Pentland Firth East Submarine Electricity distribution cable from Murkle Bay near Thurso in Caithness, to Rackwick Bay on Hoy, Orkney. 23 Degrees were tasked with providing full CDM & QHSE site setup for all of the nearshore and onshore works from the 10m contour to the cable termination point on land, and provided a range of services from front end shallow water and onshore survey, all equipment and personnel for the pull in operations, through to installation of CPS, close out reports, post installation surveys. Works were undertaken with full Covid-19 mitigation measures in place. A range of equipment was mobilised including 4 x RHIBs, 1 x landing craft, 1 x crew transfer vessel, 2 x tracked winches, 4 x excavators, supported by 23 Degrees personnel and local contractors. 23 Degrees would like to thank our clients, stakeholders, and the support of the local community and sub-contractors in achieving a successful completion to the works.
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Opposite page: Havila Jupiter and PLP240 on Kincardine Below: Kincardine Floating Offshore Wind Turbine
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ships including C.S. Recorder and C.S. Sovereign, as well as more than 20 CTVs in a range of sizes that often work alongside Global Offshore to complete cable pull-ins and termination and testing at offshore wind farm projects,” Mike added. Having referred to Normand Clipper’s work at Kriegers Flak, which will be Denmark’s largest offshore wind farm, Mike noted how Global Offshore (and fellow Global Marine Group subsidiary CWind) are working together to complete the inter array cable installation, burial, trenching, pull-in and termination and testing works at this 72-turbine project. “Our work on site began with boulder clearance utilizing a brand new, multi-function pre-lay and backfill subsea plough, the PLP240,” he explained. “The plough minimizes the operational risk and time required to install subsea cables by delivering boulder clearance and pretrenching up to 1.7m in a single run.” Delivering the PLP240 required close collaboration with Osbit and Vattenfall,
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illustrating perfectly how Global Offshore is always seeking to work directly with customers and the industry to address the changing needs of the market as it evolves with new technology and growing demands upon it for worldwide connectivity and power.
Significant scheme The Kriegers Flak project is an exciting addition to Global Offshore’s portfolio, and the business has also recently extended its working relationship with SSE on the Pentland Firth cable replacement project, which called on the Group’s range of services including route survey, data collection and studies conducted by sister company OceanIQ, and cable replacement and trenching works carried out by Global Offshore. “Our team utilized the Normand Clipper and Global Symphony to replace the existing cable with a 37km 33kV cable which follows the existing route from Murkle Bay, near Thurso, to Rackwick Bay on the island of Hoy,” Mike noted. He went on to highlight another significant scheme that it is currently working on, this time for Grupo Cobra, called Kincardine. A floating offshore windfarm in Scotland which when complete will be the largest in the world to date. The first phase of this project completed by Global Offshore back in 2018 involved pre-installation surveys, grapnel work, installation, including the use of a dynamic riser to allow for movement of the platform, and trenching of an 18km export cable from Cove to the floating turbine, located just off the coast of Aberdeen. The team are currently working on phase two at the site where an additional export and five inter array cables will be installed, with work already completed on route clearance by the new PLP240 asset. “This project not only illustrates the growth in floating offshore wind, but how oil and gas techniques were used successfully in this different environment,” Mike added. It is clear that the renewable energy market is going to continue to offer up great opportunities for Global Offshore, not just through wind power, but also as the requirements of its clients in the oil and gas sector change and evolve. “With data showing that around five per cent of offshore wellhead production globally is used to power platforms, producing combustion-related emissions of around 200 million tons of CO2
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GLOBAL OFFSHORE
annually, it is not surprising that the sector is seeking more environmentally-friendly methods of generating electricity to power offshore platforms,” stated Mike. “Powering platforms through renewables rather than gas-driven generators, or even connecting them to power supplies directly from shore, is seen as a game changer for the industry. This would require a strong, reliable power supply to floating platforms or turbines. We are uniquely experienced when it comes to providing innovative solutions for this industry challenge, having worked at Statoil Gjøa semi-submersible platform in the North Sea, the first ever floating platform to have power supplied by a direct link from shore. We were responsible for the laying of 99km of static cable and 1.5km of dynamic cable; at the time, the world’s longest power link to an offshore platform. The cable, bringing electricity to the platform from the Mongstad refinery in Norway, has resulted in reduced carbon emissions by an estimated 210,000 – 250,000 tons a year.”
Updating procedures Global Offshore’s client list is clearly impressive and the close working relationships it has formed with these bluechip organizations over the years have paid ENERGY,OIL&GAS
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dividends recently, as the company and the industry – and indeed the world – wages a battle against Covid-19. Mike divulged that in April, the Group was involved with an emergency response exercise with Vattenfall, using the Global Symphony, which was on charter to them at the time. “Although we have been doing everything possible to ensure our vessels remain sterile environments – from quarantining before joining, testing, and restricted shore leave – the exercise was designed to test both companies’ responses to a Covid-19 incident onboard a vessel should it arise. With updated procedures, clear plans in place, and well briefed teams, the exercise was a success,” he confirmed.
Maintaining connections Having already instigated a raft of measures both on and offshore designed to keep staff safe, Mike noted that as parts of the world begin to see a second wave of the virus, and restrictions which only recently eased begin to tighten again, the challenge continues. “However, with the increased strain on the world’s power and fiber optic infrastructures, it’s more important than ever that the systems we rely on are well maintained. A large part of this process is ensuring that the web of subsea cables that keep our power on, and our internet connected, remain fully operational – activities at the core of our services,” he added. With exacting protocols in place to protect its staff from the virus, Global Offshore has positioned itself in the best possible place to handle the contracts it has lined up for the
Opposite page: Global Symphony working on Kincardine II Right: DKF - Vattenfall 2020
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next few years. “We can expect to continue growing and evolving as a business, as despite being well established in the industry, we are still fairly new to the Global Marine Group. Being part of the Group means we benefit from continuous investment and a constant focus on innovation, and I expect that we will continue to grow our assets and develop new ways to improve on traditional processes, as we have done recently with the upgrades to Normand Clipper, engineering developments to our two Q1400 trenching ROVs, and the PLP240 prelay plough, to name just a few,” said Mike. “In the near term, we will also be celebrating the commissioning of the world’s first hybrid SES CTV as it joins the CWind fleet. The 23m vessel has been designed by the Group’s engineering team to reach new levels of operational capability, performance and efficiency. With a high crew transfer wave height capability, it presents a significant increase in operational days offshore, whilst the hybrid propulsion system results in significant reductions in fuel consumption and the associated CO2 emissions. There is a great deal of excitement about the vessel joining the industry, and with it, a new generation of CTVs, further working towards a greener future.”
Winning combination Alongside its innovative new products and vessels, if you look inward, the business is also placing high importance on nurturing new talent for the future of the industry – through apprenticeship schemes, its cadet program and inspiring those even younger with STEM
PROFILE
initiatives. It is also committed to working with industry bodies to support and lead growth and innovation, as well as working with local experts in growing markets by forming joint ventures, which give it an opportunity to share the knowledge and experience from the UK and Europe market with those in countries where the renewables market is very much bourgeoning i.e. Taiwan and the US. For Mike, the success of Global Offshore comes down to a winning combination – a unique history in marine engineering, a commitment to innovation, and an unrivalled track record and experience in subsea cable installation, protection and maintenance, plus a team of extremely capable people who share a wealth of knowledge. “As a Group the business has a range of complementary services and skills, taking experience and best practice from working across multiple sectors, that when combined, offers customers a comprehensive, trusted solution,” he concluded. “Our staff represent four brands that constantly achieve excellence through an exemplary commitment to health and safety,
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and a proactive approach to overcoming engineering challenges to exceed our customers’ expectations. That passion is evident in the entire team, and together, we are committed to engineering a clean and connected future.”
Global Offshore www.globaloffshore.co.uk ......................................... Services: Offshore engineering
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Going for gold Newmont is the world’s leading gold company and a producer of copper, silver, zinc and lead. The Company’s world-class portfolio of assets, prospects and talent is anchored in favorable mining jurisdictions in North America, South America, Australia and Africa. Newmont is
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the only gold producer listed in the S&P 500 Index and is widely recognised for its principled environmental, social and governance practices. The Company is an industry leader in value creation, supported by robust safety standards, superior execution and technical proficiency. Newmont was
PROFILE
NEWMONT AUSTRALIA – TANAMI EXPANSION 2 PROJECT
founded in 1921 and has been publicly traded since 1925. In 2019, following the transformational acquisition of Goldcorp, Newmont became the world’s leading gold company and a producer of copper, silver, zinc and lead. Newmont gained this position through its
own assets, Goldcorp’s world-class mines and the formation of the Nevada Gold Mines joint venture with Barrick, which created the world’s single largest gold producing complex. Energy, Oil & Gas focused its attention on the organization’s Australian operations, and spoke to Vince De Carolis, General Manager ENERGY,OIL&GAS
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The company is widely recognized for its principled environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. We have a fundamental belief that strong ESG performance is essential for delivering sustainable, long-term value for all of our stakeholders and is part of the fabric of Newmont
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Tanami for Newmont Australia, to get some more details of what is happening ‘down under’. “Newmont Australia was Australia’s leading gold producer in 2019, producing around 1.431 million attributable ounces of gold and 64 million pounds of copper,” he began, before continuing with some further details of the mining operations. “Newmont Australia’s 100 per cent-owned operating assets include Boddington in Western Australia and Tanami in the Northern Territory,” he explained. “Newmont Australia has operated the Tanami gold mine since acquiring Normandy Mining in 2002. The underground mining infrastructure and operation is located at Dead Bullock Soak (DBS), where presently we are mining the Callie orebody. The processing infrastructure is located 40 kilometers to the east of the mining operations at the “Granites”. Ore is transported by road train from DBS underground to the processing facility. In 2019, Tanami produced 500,000
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attributable ounces of gold and processed 2.6m tons of ore.” The operation takes place on land owned by the First Nations Warlpiri people, who have formal agreements in place with Newmont to share value and protect their land, heritage and culture.
Significant scale The Tanami mine has recently been the focus of a significant investment by Newmont – as Vince highlighted, this project received full funding in October 2019 and is already under execution. “The Tanami Expansion 2 Project (TE2) is an enlargement of Newmont’s Tanami gold project, 530km NE of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory,” he went on. “The main scope of the project involves the construction of a Headframe and a 5.5m diameter, concrete lined, vertical hoisting shaft to a depth of 1460m below surface. The shaft will be used for the transportation of ore and personnel and will accommodate support services and cooled ventilation air to support the further development of the mine at depth. The project includes additional scope for the existing Mill facilities at Granites, where we will do some brownfields work to increase processing capacity.” The vertical shaft that Vince referred to is a key part of the TE2 project, as creating this access, rather than using the existing decline from surface, will allow Newmont Australia to mine deeper, and extend the resource and mine life. “The ore will be brought up vertically via skips rather than trucking the ore out which is the current process,” he added. “Importantly, additional scope, such as ventilation in the mine and expanding the processing capacity of the mill, will improve working arrangements and secure Tanami’s place as the key processing facility in the region. The expansion of the mill means we can put through more ore and produce more than 150,000 extra ounces of gold per year.” What makes this project even more impressive is that it is underway in one of Australia’s most remote locations. Tanami is 270km from its closest neighbors, the remote Aboriginal community of Yuendumu, and is described as a ‘Fly-in, Fly-out (FIFO) operation’. Vince noted how Newmont was handling this particular aspect. “The building of an accommodation camp at the Callie mine will greatly assist in managing fatigue for our underground workforce, saving them 80 minutes of travel time a day back to the
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NEWMONT AUSTRALIA – TANAMI EXPANSION 2 PROJECT
existing accommodation camp,” he said. “As the country’s largest underground gold mine, Tanami is an exceptional ore body and this next phase of investment has the potential to extend the mine life beyond 2040 and provide a platform for us to further explore a prolific mineral endowment in the Tanami district.” Given the significant scale of TE2, proceeding under normal conditions would make this project a complex logistical and engineering challenge, but factoring in Covid19 has raised the stakes even higher. Vince confirmed that the project is going well with all critical activities having progressed despite the pandemic. “Development slowed a little in Q2 due to the pandemic, with
travel restrictions due to regulations related to Covid the main issue, but we are working closely with our principal contractor Worley to mitigate any impacts that Covid has presented,” he stated.
Robust protocols Overall, Newmont’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic has been remarkable, with quick action and tough strategies in place. “Newmont Tanami was a stand-out in being one of the first mines in the Northern Territory to have a Covid Management Plan approved by Government,” stated Vince. “The health and wellbeing of our employees, their families and the communities in which we operate comes above all else. Every action
VALMEC
Valmec is a specialist multi-discipline contractor, providing in-house and niche end-to-end solutions covering design, construction and maintenance to the energy, resources and infrastructure sectors. Valmec has been working with Newmont Australia on their Tanami Expansion 2 (TE 2) Project for the last two years, delivering works on new haul road and accommodation camp infrastructure, bulk earthworks, borefield pipeline installation, and surface excavation of box-cut and concrete works for the sub-brace and service ducts of a production shaft. Valmec’s presence in Tanami continues to grow by delivering value through quality project solutions and superior services. It is proud to be able to work with Newmont and their local content partners to deliver the TE 2 Project safely.
...with exciting plans for new developments, upgrades and refinery expansions on the agenda, the business can be viewed as a leading light for not just Pakistan but for the wider energy industry
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NEWMONT AUSTRALIA – TANAMI EXPANSION 2 PROJECT
we took to manage the pandemic was based on that premise. We implemented robust protocols early on at each of our sites to protect the health and wellbeing of our workforce and in turn, the communities around our operations. To better support our communities and workforce, earlier this year we also established a $20 million global Community Support Fund, and we have been able to extend that to local community needs in the Northern Territory.”
Sustainable value While 2020 is proving to be one of immense global challenges, 2019 was actually a key 12 months for Newmont’s portfolio in Australia, as it works to build a sustainable and long-term future. As Vince noted, the full funding for the Tanami Expansion 2 project was granted that year, and he gave some examples of what other activities the business has undertaken, which included another important development at Tanami. “We completed the Tanami Power Project, which will deliver a more secure fuel supply and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. This USD 200m+ project included the installation of two power stations, a 66kV interconnected power line, and a 275 mile (450km) natural gas pipeline. The pipeline was built and will be maintained by Australian Gas Infrastructure Group, while the power stations were constructed and will be operated by Zenith Energy. The project is expected to generate net cash savings of $34 per ounce from 2019 to 2023, delivering an Internal Rate of Return of greater than 50 per cent. In addition to lowering costs and carbon emissions, the completed Tanami Power Project will pave the way to further extend the life of the operation. Completion of the project also coincided with Tanami pouring its 10 millionth ounce of gold on the back of record production of 500,000 ounces last year. But Tanami isn’t the only site of improvement in Australia. “At Boddington [a large gold and copper mine located 120 km from Western Australia’s capital city, Perth] we continued our proud tradition of innovation by being the first open pit gold mine to invest in Autonomous Haulage Systems (AHS), fully funding a project in February 2020 that will see Newmont Boddington adopting a technology that will be a world first in open pit gold mining. The total net investment in Boddington’s AHS will be $150m, with efficiencies expected
to extend the mine’s life. The company also sees additional upside potential from the replication of the AHS at other Newmont operations. Boddington’s autonomous Caterpillar haul trucks will feature rigorous safety controls that reduce employee exposure to potential vehicle interactions. Newmont is also executing a robust people strategy at Boddington, providing opportunities for reskilling and redeployment of haul truck drivers to other roles supporting the AHS. With safety and staff both being highlighted as significant priorities in the AHS implementation, it is not surprising to learn that a strong strategy lies behind Newmont’s approach to corporate and social responsibility. “The company is widely recognized for its principled environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices,” Vince confirmed. “We have a fundamental belief that strong ESG performance is essential for delivering sustainable, long-term value for all of our stakeholders and is part of the fabric of Newmont. We have learned lessons about the need to engage communities early in order to build robust, long-term relationships. These lessons are reflected in our mature operating model, underpinned by robust governance practices, which leverages our collective expertise and applies best practices to social and technical issues. “Today we have an Independent Board that holds management accountable for ESG performance, with ESG sitting on the Executive team since 2006, transparent reporting since 2003, and a disciplined country risk program that ensures we assess our jurisdictions and risk tolerance. We are very clear around the jurisdictions we are prepared to operate in and we have a robust succession planning process to continually develop the next generation of leaders across our business.” Having been given a glimpse into the world of Newmont Australia and the wider Newmont Group it is clear that the company has continuous ambitions to develop and grow over the coming years. Having been crowned the top mining company on FORTUNE’s 2020 list of the World’s Most Admired Companies, as well as other multiple acknowledgments over the years, Newmont’s efforts to create sustainable value and opportunity have been recognized, and the company looks set to continue this success well into the future.
...with exciting plans for new developments, upgrades and refinery expansions on the agenda, the business can be viewed as a leading light for not just Pakistan but for the wider energy industry
Newmont Australia – Tanami Expansion 2 Project www.newmont.com ............................................ Services: Mining
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A company with a long and storied heritage in tidal power generation, SIMEC Atlantis Energy has, over the years, established a reputation as a leading developer of sustainable energy projects
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across the globe. With more than 1000 megawatts of power projects currently in various stages of development - including MeyGen, the world’s largest flagship freestream tidal power scheme - Atlantis is now
PROFILE
SIMEC ATLANTIS ENERGY LIMITED
Uncharted waters
looking to harness the potential of waste-toenergy, through the exciting conversion of Uskmouth Power Station. Built in 1959, Uskmouth Power Station was designed as a 3-unit coal-fired power
I have worked in many different energy companies, including thermal, renewable and customer networks, and the more we can share the learnings from these, the better our projects and technologies can become. We have already learnt a huge amount from offshore wind, and as more turbines go into the water, that shared knowledge increases and helps to bring down costs, makes technologies more efficient and more reliable, and that is good for our projects and good for others’ projects as well
generation plant with a gross capacity of 393 megawatts. Atlantis acquired the site in 2017 as part of a diversification effort, and after discarding an early plan to transform the plant into a biomass station, the company ENERGY,OIL&GAS
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turned to its roots as a marine-based tidal operation in an attempt to find a solution. “At Atlantis, we have a real understanding of the challenge the marine world is facing with the impact of cheap plastic waste,” explains Sean Parsons, the company’s Director of External Affairs. “One of the things we looked at, and are now developing with European-based company N+P, is a fuel that takes end of life plastic waste, blends it with biogenic material and creates fuel pellets. Those fuel pellets can then be used to produce electricity. “You get the benefit of stopping landfill waste or incineration because this is plastic you can’t recycle, and they are removing that from landfill and using it to produce electricity. Additionally, because it is blended with biogenic materials, you are reducing your carbon contents as well. From our side, it is about half the carbon emissions, so it was a great opportunity for us. However, it has never been done before on a large scale. They have done it on test sites, but it has not been used for a full conversion. That,” Sean says, “is where Uskmouth Power Station comes in.”
Benefits and opportunities Since settling on the waste-to-energy conversion project for the plant, the team at Atlantis has spent three years taking Uskmouth Power Station through all the necessary planning, testing, and permit application processes. Despite the challenges of Covid-19,
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Atlantis has also been working with Mitsubishi Hitachi on the remote testing of fuel pellets in Japan and has received positive feedback regarding their energy output. Working closely with Uskmouth residents, local authorities and governing bodies, Atlantis has helped to explain and establish the benefits and opportunities that the conversion of the power plant will offer. Further from home, the firm has recently announced an agreement with South Korea’s Hana Financial Group for the funding of Phase One of the project. “It is brilliant to have such a big name on board and to have that milestone reached,” Sean declares. “It highlights the global interest in this project – and that is where things get really exciting. If you get one project in South Wales converted, the opportunity suddenly arises in Asia too. Global markets are looking at Uskmouth and saying wow, this could actually benefit us too, both in terms of decarbonization and waste. “With thermal generation, you get more dispatchable and base loaded power because
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you don’t have the intermittency,” Sean continues. “One of the challenges that a lot of countries face as they decarbonize is around what a technology can actually deliver. Wind and solar are brilliant technologies, but they have their challenges. What we are doing at Uskmouth will better enable a transition worldwide.”
Tidal potential Atlantis’ partnership with Hana is a key landmark for the company’s Uskmouth project, but it doesn’t mean that the firm will be abandoning the tidal side of its business. Committed to providing an energy mix that will ease the decarbonization process, Atlantis believes that tidal energy can offer a predictability and optimization of output that more intermittent technologies like wind and solar power cannot guarantee. Now, in 2020, the company is ready to engage in Phase Two of its flagship MeyGen tidal project, which will increase output from six megawatts to 86 megawatts. Though the scheme is the largest in the world, Sean claims that, as the scale of
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the project rises, the cost continues to fall. “We are always looking to reduce cost and one way we are doing this is by partnering with data centers,” he reports. “We have seen a huge rise in demand for data storage and data centers and that is only increasing with Covid-19 and the need for more data connectivity. The challenge for these data centers is that they are power-hungry beasts, with a real dependency on continuous base load power. We think tidal has a huge role to play in that area moving forward and the data center partnerships provide us with the kind of level offtaking that can bring our costs down dramatically. “Along with the cost reduction and the war on plastics and carbon, we have recently brought the Green Highlands Renewables Team on board. They are a really well-regarded hydro development team that is contracted to look after, operate, develop and maintain projects across Scotland and the UK. It means that we now have a top team of hydro engineers at a time when Atlantis is on the cusp of delivering some truly pioneering projects.” As Sean suggests, Atlantis’ key objective now is the successful and timely delivery of both the MeyGen and Uskmouth projects. By the end of 2020, the firm expects to have
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received planning and permit decisions, meaning that construction for the conversion process could begin as early as 2021. For MeyGen, the next step is to find routes for the uptake of energy produced, whether it be with data centers or through discussions with the government about the future of the marine energy sector. “It’s all about finding a way for the energy market to allow these projects to be delivered and create the substantial jobs, investment and supply chain that we know they can,” Sean states. “When you look at money flow for these schemes, it is phenomenal. In offshore wind, for every pound, you are looking at around 35 pence. Whereas for tidal energy, for every pound, you are looking at 80 pence. That is 80 per cent local spend in the UK, in some really key areas. It’s an amazing stat and explains why we have such strong support on a local level.”
Transformative power Talking to Sean, the excitement he exudes for Atlantis’ work is palpable. This is, of course, understandable for someone so close to the action, but more importantly, it is an indication to the wider world of the sheer potential and transformative power that the
PROFILE
company’s new projects possess. According to Sean, the world won’t have to wait very long. “By 2023, we should have Uskmouth coming online and MeyGen in Phase Two,” he predicts. “In around four or five years’ time, I want to see Uskmouth Power Station delivering power to the grid, reducing landfill and addressing our waste issues. To have both those projects operating at full scale in 2025 would be phenomenal. Once that happens, we will very much be gearing towards taking these technologies global. That’s where they should be. We want Atlantis to be delivering these amazing projects around the world.”
Energy pioneers Like any trailblazer performing the first groundbreaking work of its kind, Atlantis operates in rarified air. With no direct competitors to speak of - Atlantis currently produces 50 per cent of the entire world’s tidal energy - and with so much room for opportunity in the market, there is a sense of unity between Atlantis and its fellow energy pioneers as they share knowledge and work individually, but collectively, towards finding better, cleaner, more efficient and more sustainable ways to power our lives. “I have worked in many different energy companies, including thermal, renewable and customer networks, and the more we can share the learnings from these, the better our projects and technologies can become,” Sean insists. “We have already learnt a huge amount from offshore wind, and as more turbines go into the water, that shared knowledge increases and helps to bring down costs, makes technologies more efficient and more reliable, and that is good for our projects and good for others’ projects as well. “In the years ahead, I believe that the UK is well placed to be a leader in renewables because of its shared experience and legacy in energy generation,” Sean contends in closing. “One of the problems with the tidal and marine sector is that it has always been seen as a technology of tomorrow, but Atlantis is about being in the technology of tomorrow, today.
SIMEC ATLANTIS ENERGY LIMITED
It’s not just about converting Uskmouth, it’s about taking that and replicating it in all coalfired power stations. MeyGen is not just about delivering a six-megawatt tidal project, it is about delivering a one-gigawatt scheme. This is what Atlantis is all about.”
SIMEC Atlantis Energy Limited www.simecatlantis.com ......................................... Services: Sustainable energy project development
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Bore more, burn less Based in Ontario, Canada, GeoSource Energy is a design-build firm helping its clients to ‘bore more’ and ‘burn less’. Established in 2004, the company harnesses the power of sustainable geothermal energy, sourcing it and offering it to customers as an alternative to conventional natural gas. “In 2004, there was a downturn in the natural gas sector and I realized we needed an alternative heating source. Geothermal heat pumps were a very clear winner,” explains CEO Stanley Reitsma. “What followed was the creation of GeoSource, a company in the business of geoexchange, which involves using renewable energy stored just below the earth’s surface to help provide hot water for homes, or to heat and cool a building.
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By boring into the earth and installing heat exchangers, we can extract or reject heat to or from the near subsurface, and therefore provide a low-emission heating and cooling solution. “As illustrated in our logo, our model is about accessing energy from the ground,” Stanley adds. “All, or most, of the energy we need is right beneath our feet and if we can just plug into that, we won’t need natural gas or other less environmentally friendly methods to heat our buildings. “As a company, our core business involves drilling and putting in the geoexchangers to depths of 850 feet. Our niche is underbuilding construction, where we drill prior to a building going up. We also do all the piping that brings energy from the
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GEOSOURCE ENERGY INC
Overall, we still expect substantial growth over the next period. We have been drilling 500 or 600 bore holes a year, which equates to around 1000 to 1200 condominium units a year at 1000 square foot each unit. We are now ready to start working in the range of 2000 units a year and we anticipate that we will get to 4000 or 5000 units over the next three years or so. This is the kind of growth trajectory that a partnership between GeoSource and our new utility partner could achieve
borehole to the mechanical room, where we pressure test the system before turning it over to a mechanical contractor.” A family-run business, GeoSource is owned and operated by the three Reitsma brothers – one a former mining exploration helicopter pilot, one the previous owner of a heavy landscaping, retaining wall company, and Stanley, an ex-university professor with a PhD in Civil Engineering. The siblings’ varying backgrounds and complementary skillsets have helped the firm grow from a small drilling operation to an organization with a reputation for excellence from Windsor to Ottawa. Having started with a single rebuilt old rig, GeoSource has transformed its drilling capabilities over the years through the regular
introduction of new, technologically advanced machinery. In 2009, the company purchased its first rotary rig from Novamac in Quebec, a piece of equipment that lent GeoSource a huge competitive advantage, and as a result, the firm added a second rotary rig a year later.
Rig fleet expansion Despite global economic downturns in 2008 and 2012, as well as the challenges of 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic, GeoSource continues to grow. Today, the company operates seven rigs, with an eighth on its way very shortly. “The next step in the rig development process was the facilitation of angled boreholes including rod handling,” Stanley reports. “We’ve got three of them right now and a fourth one is being delivered soon. A ENERGY,OIL&GAS
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big selling point is that these latest rigs allow mast oscillation, so the mast rotates side to side as well as in line with the machine, which means you can drill in multiple orientations from one rig position. This equipment enables us to drill projects on very, very tight sites in terms of surface area availability. We are now targeting the retrofit market of office buildings and condominium towers too and so we need to be able to drill our geothermal boreholes underneath buildings, from the side. We’ve done a few of those, and this is our go-to machine now for that kind of work. “Going forward, we are trying to standardize everything as we get to a point where we can scale up. We want all operators to be able to move between the different machines as we add new purpose-built equipment that is better than the last, in our push for more reliability and better serviceability.” GeoSource’s significant drilling capabilities have established the foundation upon
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which the business has grown into a full turnkey geothermal design-build operation for institutions like hospitals, universities, colleges, schools, municipal buildings, and airport terminals, as well as multi-residential private sector developments, such as condo towers and assisted living facilities. Among the firm’s recent projects is the installation of geothermal solutions at a zero-carbon hospital building in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland.
Strong relationships “At Cornerbrook, we are drilling 375 boreholes to 600 feet,” Stanley reveals. “It is the kind of project where you need multiple rigs for a period of time, while maintaining the rest of your business and keeping your other clients happy. We have a lot of capacity at GeoSource, which means we can take on large projects like this that a lot of our competitors are unable to do. There is probably only one other drilling contractor in Canada with our capacity and they are in Alberta, so it really sets us apart. “Closer to home, we have just been awarded a very large project for the University of Toronto. It involves drilling 375 holes at around 810 feet. This will be the largest single geothermal field in Ontario, once complete, and it will feed one of campuses in the future with heat pump technology, as opposed to boilers and cooling towers. “On the private side of things, which is probably the bigger side of our operation, we regularly work with around eight to ten developers and recently, many of them are choosing geosystems for their large buildings over conventional energy because of environmental construction codes like the City of Toronto’s Green Standard,” Stanley states. “Currently, geothermal energy makes up around five per cent of the market space for condominiums, but that looks like it is going to increase to around 20 or 30 per cent. The market is growing quickly, and so the volume of work for us is really picking up.” As a smaller, established company competing against large, cash-rich contractors entering the geospace, GeoSource has always focused on fostering strong relationships with its clients, built upon the quality, reliability, and longevity of its work. Constantly looking for ways to improve, in 2018, the company added a dedicated engineering department to help with design elements, such as the sizing of bore fields and the optimization of mechanical systems. Having outgrown
PROFILE
its original Caledonia site, GeoSource is also in the early stages of planning for the construction of a brand-new and improved facility, complete with a shop, warehouse, offices, and space for the potential introduction of a strategic partner in the future. “We have always made a huge effort not to sacrifice quality in the search for more profitability,” Stanley declares. “We look at GeoSource as a long-term business, not a company driven by quarterly earnings or something like that. It’s an approach that has moved the business forward and we remain dedicated to producing systems that operate as designed, resulting in happy clients. It means that today, most of our work is repeat business and we continue to have the opportunity to work with contractors like PCL and EllisDon, which are some of the largest in Canada.” With no sign of GeoSource’s growth slowing down in the near future, the company is now preparing to announce a new utility partner that will act as a long-term owner and operator of the firm’s geothermal assets. The initiative aims to lower capital expenditure for developers and increase the flexibility of GeoSource’s offering. As a result, in the next few years, Stanley expects to see GeoSource encounter new opportunities that will lead to even greater expansion. “Working with a patient-capital-type utility is going to lower risk and allow a lot more projects to go forward and reach the hurdlerate expectations, so that is a big factor behind this new utility partner decision,” Stanley says. “Overall, we still expect substantial growth over the next period. We
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have been drilling 500 or 600 bore holes a year, which equates to around 1000 to 1200 condominium units a year at 1000 square foot each unit. We are now ready to start working in the range of 2000 units a year and we anticipate that we will get to 4000 or 5000 units over the next three years or so. This is the kind of growth trajectory that a partnership between GeoSource and our new utility partner could achieve.”
...with exciting plans for new developments, upgrades and refinery GeoSource Energy expansions on Inc www.geosourceenergy.com the agenda, the ............................................ Services: Turnkey business cangeothermal design-build, own, be viewed asoperate a services leading light for not just Pakistan but for the wider energy industry
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Energy for more
Back in 2014, activity in the Marcellus/Utica Shale Basin was booming, however, the market was almost exclusively occupied by small local businesses and large corporations, which for the most were not local. Experienced services executive Bill Johnson recognized this, and could see the potential rewards for someone who could establish a midsize, regional business, capable of supporting production and midstream activities in the area. Through a partnership
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with Virginia-based private equity firm Turning Basin Capital, Bill set out to turn this vision into a reality. It was in this way that, after a series of acquisitions and mergers, ShalePro Energy Services came to be. Six years later, in 2020, ShalePro is one of America’s fastest growing private companies. The firm has over 300 employees and has already been named on the Inc. 5000 list four times. Ultimately, Bill, ShalePro’s CEO, suggests that the business has become what it
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SHALEPRO ENERGY SERVICES
If we can get one third production, one third midstream, and one third renewable natural gas clients, that would be beautiful
set out to be – a very sizeable regional player in the Marcellus/Utica region. “A lot of the success we have achieved goes back to our original thesis,” Bill explains. “The smaller businesses in this market just don’t have the scale and talent pool we have, or they don’t have the resources to invest in the talent pool we have. We’ve really taken the model of those smaller businesses to the next level by bringing in professional expertise in almost every facet of the business
- not only the technical and operational areas, but also the back office and support staff too - which has allowed us to grow, and we have the capital to invest and support that growth. “When it comes to what sets our work apart though, it is all about the quality of the services we provide every day to our clients,” he adds. “Again, it goes back to the people we have been able to hire, attract, and retain in the business. We have been willing to make the kind of investment necessary to go and ENERGY,OIL&GAS
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get those people and it has really paid off.” Predominantly, ShalePro is split between Operations and Maintenance work, and a Construction and Projects side of the business. With regards to the former, the company performs a wide variety of operations and maintenance services for both production and midstream clients, including well tending, compressor operations, pipeline maintenance and pigging services. The latter, ShalePro’s Construction and Projects arm, covers well hook-up work, mechanical construction, welding in a 33,000-square foot fabrication shop, as well as a selection of above ground piping, valve configuration, compression and midstream gas processing facility infrastructure work.
Four key areas Referring to a project the company took on earlier this year, Bill describes how the full breadth of ShalePro’s services looks in action. “The work in question was for an exploration and production company in the process of buying new assets in the Marcellus dry gas area, up in northeastern Pennsylvania,” Bill says. “We actually made a strategic investment with them as part of the purchase of those assets, and in exchange for that strategic investment, we have become their services provider, which means that we are not only providing midstream and production related services, but we are also operating and maintaining all the assets over a longterm contract period. If we didn’t have such a broad range of services to offer, we really could not have pulled that deal together, but thanks to the way we are set up, we can step in and take care of all their operations.” In addition to its core offerings, ShalePro
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possesses an Instrumentation and Electrical Services division, and most recently, the firm launched a renewables group to serve natural gas power projects, biogas, and landfill gas clients. Introduced in the latter half of 2020, the new Services division is comprised of four key areas: The first area focuses on traditional, natural-gas-fired powerplants. Due to the proliferation of such sites across the Marcellus/Utica Shale Basin, and how clean natural gas is compared to coal, ShalePro aims to provide the fuel gas infrastructure work necessary for the running of these plants. “We wouldn’t be building the powerplants,” Bill states, “but we would be transporting the gas and taking care of the natural gas infrastructure. That is one component of the new division.” The second component is in the area of landfill gas, a fuel generated and captured as waste products in a landfill breakdown. ShalePro plans to provide the natural gas infrastructure to process landfill gas, filter it, compress it, and then find a way to transport it to a point of sale, either via midstream pipeline or by road. “The third area we’re looking at,” Bill continues, “would be in biogas. Biogas tends to be animal waste, but it can be captured from food waste too, and our job would be the same as with landfill: collecting the gas, filtering it, getting it to pipeline quality, compressing it, and figuring out how to get that gas to market.” The fourth and final component in the new Power Generation Services arm is what Bill calls ‘behind the meter’ – electrical generation using natural gas. Targeted at big industrial customers in regions with easy access to large amounts of natural gas, ShalePro aims to provide such sites with their own natural gas powerplant, allowing facilities to use natural gas as a power source, and thus negating the need to buy electricity from a utility company. “A lot of our clients in the renewables area tend to be developers, so they don’t often know a lot about gas infrastructure like our traditional clients do,” Bill remarks. “These customers rely on a company like us because they don’t have that vital in-house expertise. “For us, the transition to renewables has been easy. In all four of the areas we’ve discussed, we draw on our experience with traditional exploration and production and midstream companies, and apply it, on a smaller scale, to these niche markets.”
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The Power Generation Services division is now operational and its launch is an example of how ShalePro has adapted its focus in 2020, a year which has seen a downturn in the oil and gas market, as well as all the trials and tribulations of the Covid-19 pandemic. Though low commodity prices may have stifled production this year, ShalePro has remained flexible throughout, concentrating instead on investing in and expanding its service offering in preparation for the recovery of the market in 2021 and beyond. Alongside the renewables service, next year’s customers will also be able to take advantage of ShalePro’s new helical pile installation services. “HelicalPro, as we call it, is another division we have added this year,” Bill reports. “A lot of our projects in the natural gas sector are now using helical piles as foundations instead of their traditional dug concrete counterparts. If, for example, you are setting a compressor in winter time when it is very difficult to deal with concrete curing and pouring in the cold, you can now go and drive these helical piles into the ground in any weather conditions and use that as your base foundation. The same goes for piping racks, supports, and basically any above ground structural foundation that is needed at these gas processing or well sites. For many of them, helical piles are a top candidate; they go in faster and they can even be unscrewed out of the ground, so they are a good option for non-permanent foundations as well.”
Further evolution After a year spent laying groundwork for the company’s future, Bill is now hoping that ShalePro will be able to gain a more even balance between its midstream clients, upstream production work, and renewables division. “If we can get one third production, one third midstream, and one third renewable natural gas clients, that would be beautiful,” he declares. “It won’t happen next year because the renewables will take some time to catch up, but if we can get there the year after that, I would be very happy with the balance.” As Bill alludes to, further evolution is on the way for ShalePro, a company that has remained successful in even the slowest parts of 2020 thanks to its extensive and diverse service range. When drilling activity was postponed and production delayed, the firm continued with its day-to-day operations
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and maintenance-based work, whilst its competitors with a narrower focus were hobbled by the downturn. Having weathered the storm of 2020, and positioned itself to capitalize on the market’s resurgence, it is hard to imagine anything the business world could throw at ShalePro in the next five years that the company couldn’t handle.
ShalePro Energy Services www.shalepro.com ............................................ Services: Natural gas focused production and midstream services
...with exciting plans for new developments, upgrades and refinery expansions on the agenda, the business can be viewed as a leading light for not just Pakistan but for the wider energy industry
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