Offshore staff
HOUSTON – Jonathan Landes, President Subsea – TechnipFMC, discussed how the company is preparing for the future of the offshore energy industry during the opening panel session at the Offshore Technology Conference.
“We believe offshore is the future of both traditional and new energies.” Landes said. “There is no question that for decades to come, no matter which scenario you look at, oil and gas is a major component of the energy mix. So, we have to focus on decarbonizing oil and gas.”
Last November, TechnipFMC launched the 50 by 30 initiative. This targets a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
He said one of the company’s biggest emissions contributors is its vessel fleet. So, the company is focused on two elements. The first is biofuels. “The challenge with biofuels is the availability, accessibility, affordability,” he said. “It is going to take years in order for that to come to fruition.” The second is hybridization. Earlier this year, the company converted its dive support vessel Deep Arctic to run on hybrid battery power. He said this reduces the vessel’s emissions by 20%. This is the company’s second vessel to convert to hybrid battery power.
As for new energies, he said the company is to be “the architect and enabler for the future of the energy transition.”
The company is focused on four key areas: wind, wave, green hydrogen, and carbon storage.
TechnipFMC has several partners and concepts in offshore floating wind and wave, including with Bombora. The companies are working on the InSPIRE (Integrated Semisubmersible Platform with Innovative Renewable Energy) project. The partnership is developing a hybrid system using Bombora’s mWave technology. The hybrid system demonstrator will deliver 6 MW (2 MW wave and 4 MW of wind power), followed by Series 1 and Series 2 commercial platforms which are expected to deliver 12 and 18 MW, respectively.
Over the past four years, TechnipFMC has been developing an energy system called Deep Purple. This combines offshore renewable energy as the input and produces green hydrogen.
“When there is more energy input versus what is needed, hydrogen is produced, converted, and stored subsea,” he said. “When renewable energy input drops below what is demanded, we reconvert that hydrogen back to electricity.”
Multiple pilots and studies are ongoing. He said the company is excited about the hydrogen storage aspect. “A typical solution with hydrogen can store more than 15 times the megawatt hours than the largest battery bank that is offered today,” Landes said.
08/16/2021
