The offshore upstream oil and gas industry is investing heavily to increase production, while maintaining or improving efficiency and safety. To do so, they must overcome the limitations of current power infrastructure. That need will only grow as producers look to electrify more subsea assets in new and existing sites to improve the reach, control, and safety of production operations.
According to C-Power partner SLB, offshore oil and guess electrification offshore yields key benefits:
“All-electric systems distribute power and data efficiently across long distances, require limited to zero maintenance, actuate with instant high-precision control, and are inherently digital and automation ready. In offshore fields specifically, electrification expands the feasible subsea tieback radius around host facilities. This enables a reduction in project cycle time, costs, and infrastructure size—a significant source of upfront expense and embodied emissions. It allows operators to extend the productive life of existing assets and, in some cases, avoid building offshore facilities entirely by targeting commercial accumulations from land with extreme reach wells.”
However, electrification at sea poses unique obstacles.
Those improved systems and equipment don’t work without a reliable source of power and data communications, and the ocean is a power desert. Existing solutions involve running power and data cables from a central location to outlying sites. Moving power and data though this hub-and-spoke configuration is expensive, and it can result in production sites being prematurely shuttered when cables fail and the cost to replace them is too high.
Wave power is the missing piece of the puzzle. The ocean is the world’s biggest and best battery, and wave power converts that reliable, dense energy into usable electricity when and where it is needed at a cost that can be orders of magnitude cheaper than existing options for power at sea.
Case in Point: Subsea Equipment for Offshore Oil and Gas Production
Offshore oil and gas operators are actively seeking affordable, reliable energy solutions to replace failing cables, secure backup power supplies, and electrify subsea infrastructure — even entire fields.
Today, wave power can support superior power and data solutions at the edge that allow oil and gas companies to avoid costly power and data cables or replace or supplement failing ones more affordably. Oil and gas use cases for wave power include:
- Operating equipment such as electrified subsea trees or for power redundancy
- Data sensors that monitor and report real-time conditions
- Robotic systems such as autonomous underwater vehicles that inspect subsea infrastructure
Electrified equipment can be controlled remotely and autonomously, giving it the potential to stay on the job longer and with a lower operating risk profile. This, in turn, reduces costs while increasing performance and safety.
C-Power is partnering with leading offshore oil and gas service providers on an upcoming 18-month demonstration of the SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system (AOPS) in a project co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. During the demonstration, the SeaRAY will provide power and data communications for an electrified subsea asset that consists of an electric actuator, valve, subsea hydraulic power unit, and wireless subsea comms. These components will provide close proxies for real loads that an AOPS would power in a live offshore oil and gas field.
The project will enable an AOPS to demonstrate power, energy storage, and real-time communications capabilities that deliver benefits to offshore oil and gas operations, including:
- Reduced capital and operational costs
- Reduced operational complexity
- Reduced carbon emissions
- Improved operational safety via a reduction in crewed “dirty and dangerous” work
- Increased operational efficiency, including increased autonomy and residency of assets
- Easier maintenance of mobile and static operating assets
- Accelerated digital transformation and autonomy via real-time data communications and enablement of an Internet of Offshore Things
To unleash innovation, offshore oil and gas operators can partner with the growing wave power industry. C-Power’s Partner Engagement and Co-development (PEC) Program includes many of the ocean economy’s leading companies and subsea technology pioneers.
Contact us to discuss the PEC Program and upcoming demonstrations of C-Power systems delivering power and data for innovative offshore applications.