Q: Please provide us with a brief overview of your current role as it relates to this event
Dave Hutchinson (DH): I manage a team of integrity engineers and inspectors who are responsible for the static mechanical equipment on the Eni Liverpool Bay assets that are approaching decommissioning and repurposing them to carbon storage for the HyNet project.
Mike Maguire (MM): I am the Chief Executive Officer of Copsys Technologies, leading the advancement of Copsys Intelligent Digital Skin (CIDS) to market. With 4 patents applied for, CIDS is a novel paint-based “feeling skin” with potential to disrupt a range of asset integrity challenges.
Sakshi Sircar (SS): My role is as Technology Manger for Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) at NZTC. The role oversees the portfolio of activity across the organisation on this theme, shaping and planning initiatives and fore sighting for the energy industry.
Mike Tinmouth (MT): As Chief Operating Officer at ACUA Ocean I oversee both the delivery and commercialisation of new technology. As an early stage startup we have to move fast, and iterate even faster whilst keeping our finger on the pulse of customer needs.
Q: What do you see as the number one challenge for engineers when it comes to dealing with ageing assets?
DH: Getting the right people with the right skills.
MM: For me it would have to be the quality, or reliability, of asset integrity data. When data integrity falls into question, asset management teams can spend more time discussing whether they can trust the data versus leveraging the data to drive informed integrity management decisions. Poor talent retention and high rates of turnover only serve to undermine faith in the data and continuity of asset integrity situational awareness, increasing uncertainty, and risk.
SS: The number one challenge for engineers when dealing with ageing assets is ensuring the reliability and safety of these assets over an extended lifespan. Balancing the need for ongoing operations and maintenance with the cost of replacement or refurbishment is a key challenge for engineers.
MT: Moving beyond traditional solutions and embracing new technologies and sustainable and scalable solutions. Industry needs to embrace new business models for multi-stakeholder deployments and data-as-a-service/ platform-as-a-service solutions to drive down operating costs.
Q: How do the challenges differ for ageing renewables compared with traditional Oil & Gas assets?
DH: Oil and Gas process demands reduce as the field is depleted. If correctly managed, the inherent integrity on the equipment degrades slower than the process demands on it. Its not applicable in renewables, and is the complete opposite in carbon storage.
MM: Conventional normally staffed offshore oil and gas installations have access resident pools of human resources with continual execution of planned inspection and maintenance campaigns, and rapid response to unplanned events; Whereas typical normally not staffed ocean renewable energy assets require increased tactical and logistic planning for access and execution, with constant weather challenges.
Normally not staffed facilities still require significant safeguards to be maintained for visiting O&M personnel.
SS: The challenges for ageing renewables differ from traditional Oil & Gas assets in several ways. Firstly, renewable energy technologies, such wind turbines, have relatively shorter lifespans compared to the long-established infrastructure in the Oil & Gas sector. This means that replacements and upgrades may be required more frequently. Renewable technologies are also still going through an evolution requiring an ongoing ability to adapt to changing standards, technologies, and integration with the grid.
MT: We are facing unprecedented security threats to our offshore critical national infrastructure whilst also facing the increasing complexity of managing larger and more dispersed offshore sites. As floating wind increases so the will the challenge – to tackle these we need to embrace long endurance autonomous solutions in order to reduce both risk to human safety, increase operational capability and drive down cost.
Q: How do you see the developments today impacting the road to net-zero for the energy industry?
DH: There are already many well established technologies and methods that can be utilised if the right market conditions are established via government intervention. I think that is the key rather than big technological innovations – engineers know how to do this!
MM: The road to net zero needs to make sound economic sense. Attraction of investment and building of public support and social licence will depend upon on adequately predictable asset resilience and safe and efficient operating life.
SS: With the perspective of robotics and autonomous systems, the developments today are poised to have a significant impact on the road to net-zero for the energy industry. Aging energy assets, whether renewable or traditional, require regular inspection and maintenance. Robotic systems equipped with sensors, cameras, and machine learning algorithms can autonomously inspect infrastructure, detect anomalies, and perform repairs or preventive maintenance tasks. This reduces the need for human intervention in hazardous environments and enhances asset lifespan and reliability. In the oil and gas sector, where decarbonisation is a pressing challenge, robotics and autonomous systems can play a key role in reducing emissions. Autonomous underwater robots can inspect offshore infrastructure, reducing the need for manned operations and associated carbon-intensive transportation.
MT: It is counter intuitive to deploy large crewed diesel vessels to support offshore renewable infrastructure. Autonomy gives us the ability to rethink vessel design, capability and complexity – moving towards safer, stable and increased operational persistence. At ACUA we have done this through the development of a novel SWATH vessel design and the use of liquid hydrogen to give us up to 40 days of operational endurance.
Q: What contemporary technological developments or projects most interest you?
DH: The rapidly moving utilisation of drones will have a huge impact on integrity management and offshore logistics over the next few years.
MM: The intersection of advancements in sensor technologies and remote inspection and monitoring tools with big data, machine learning and AI promise to deliver actionable insights that will minimize asset integrity uncertainty and risk to advance industry toward effective and efficient predictive maintenance models.
SS: In the robotics and autonomous systems field, there are several contemporary developments that are particularly interesting such as Soft Robotics, Swarm Robotics and human-to-robot collaborative working. Within the area of swarm robotics, being able to complete multiple tasks collectively provides a fantastic opportunity to decrease carbon emissions from working in remote environments.
MT: Phase 2 of our technology roadmap will see the development of our launch and recovery system for ROVs. Initial feasibility studies with MOD are already underway looking at the deployment of towed arrays. The ability to remotely launch and recover assets from an autonomous platform will increase operational up time and reduce safety risk to operators.
Q: What will you be addressing in your presentation at the seminar?
DH: The challenges of managing an aging asset that had been given a second life as a CCS site.
MM: I will be introducing Copsys Intelligent Digital Skin, or CIDS, which is a breakthrough technology advancement with promise to disrupt integrity management of assets prone to corrosion degradation. CIDS digitally detects and accurately locates coating barrier loss in real time and introduces a new electrochemical barrier to the onset of corrosion.
SS: I will be focusing on the role robotics can play in inspecting and maintaining ageing assets.
MT: I’ll be providing an overview in the development of long endurance autonomous vessels and how platform-as-a-service operations can enhance capabilities and safety whilst reducing cost to end users.
Q: What other topics or speakers are you most looking forward to?
DH: I’m interested in how government agencies and regulators intend to approach the transition to net-zero.
MM: I am particularly interested in hearing the regulator perspective, as it is a critical test of whether we’re collectively getting it right. It will also be interesting to gain perspectives on how lessons learned from offshore oil and gas operations are informing best practices to ensure resilience and sustainability of ocean renewables, and how the synergies between conventional energy and renewables can add up to more than the sum of their parts.
SS: I particularly look forward to the Nadir Azam’s talk on data-informed decision making, as it will provide a much needed perspective and insights from the renewables sector.
Q: Why is it so important for engineers to come together at this event?
DH: This isn’t a business challenge, it’s a global one and its essential that ideas and learning is shared if CO2 reductions are to be achieved rapidly and at scale.
MM: We are all in this transition game together, and it has been demonstrated time and time again that truly disruptive innovation and technologic advancement does not happen in isolated silos. The sharing of problems, lessons learned, ideas and opportunities are the air that innovators breathe.
SS: It is crucial for engineers to come together at events to foster collaboration, exchange knowledge, and stay updated on innovation in the industry.
The Managing Ageing Offshore Assets: Adapting for Net-Zero seminar will be taking place on 22 June 2023 at the Net Zero Technology Centre in Aberdeen.
This event offers a unique combination of insights into the strategies for maintaining mature assets, repurposing infrastructure for net-zero applications, and transferring knowledge to support the successful growth of renewable technologies.
Key reasons to join:
- Contextualise the continued operation of mature assets in the North Sea, including multiple regulatory and operator perspectives
- Hear case studies on engineering activities undertaken to improve the performance of mature assets, extend their lives, or repurpose them for net-zero enabling technologies
- Explore lessons which can be learned from oil & gas to improve design and maintenance in the renewable energy industry
- Address the growing use of novel technologies including remote inspection, analysis of asset data and other innovations
To book your place, please visit the event website.