Biggest Untapped UK Oil Field, Rosebank, Approved By Regulators
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the BBC’s summary so far.
- The UK’s largest untapped oil field has been approved by regulators
- Rosebank, 80 miles west of Shetland, is estimated to contain 500 million barrels of oil
- The UK government welcomes the decision, saying it will raise billions of pounds and “make us more secure against tyrants like Putin”
- But Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf says he’s “disappointed”, while the Green Party calls the decision “morally obscene”
- Regulators said net zero considerations had been taken into account
This is my summary.
I have been reading Equinor’s web site on Rosebank.
Production will use what is known as a Floating Production Storage and Offloading Vessel or FPSO, which means, when they’ve finished, it can just sail away.
The FPSO will also be electrification-ready, so that all operations on the vessel will probably be powered by green electricity from a nearby wind farm, instead of by a gas turbine engine on the vessel, which burns gas.
This means that the offshore operations will be as carbon-free as is reasonably possible. But importantly, we will pipe the maximum amount of gas from the field for either our own use or selling to the gas-thirsty Germans.
We will need the gas for some time to back up wind and solar with gas-fired power stations.
But what about the emissions from the power stations?
Capturing carbon dioxide from a power station is getting easier, but more importantly, researchers are finding more and more innovative ways of using the carbon dioxide.
H & M and Zara are even selling clothes made from captured carbon dioxide.
Ways are also being developed using plasma electrolysis to strip the carbon out of natural gas to leave useful hydrogen.
Natural gas will be our friend for many decades yet, if we can turn it into a zero-carbon fuel, which I believe we can!
Subsea 7 To Explore Pairing Floating Offshore Hydrogen With Floating Wind Farm Off Scotland
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on offshoreWIND.biz.
This is the sub-heading.
Subsea 7, in collaboration with OneSea Energy, has secured GBP 150,000 (around USD 187,000) in funding from the Scottish government to investigate pairing a large-scale floating hydrogen production system with a floating wind farm offshore Scotland.
Looking at the home page of the OneSea Energy web site, these statements can be read.
- Large scale floating green hydrogen solutions
- OneSea build, lease and operate floating hydrogen production solutions.
- OneSea developed concepts to produce floating green hydrogen in shallow and deep waters.
- These concepts integrate decades of experience in designing, delivering and operating offshore energy production units worldwide.
- OneSea provides full turnkey floating hydrogen production solutions.
- The OneSea business model de-risks client’s financial exposure and offers a fixed rate solution that guarantees the delivery of the committed product output.
- The fast-track and plug-and-play nature of our design allows quick deployment of the units with minimum impact to an existing offshore energy generation project.
- OneSea appear to be a company based in the Netherlands.
Note.
- I like the build, lease and operate concept.
- Pictures indicate that their production units are based on ships.
- There appear to be three different sizes of production units.
Their production units seem to serve a similar purpose as a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit does in the offshore oil and gas industry.
OneSea seems to have thought deeply about how to satisfy the offshore hydrogen production market as widely as possibly.
I could see this concept being employed in several places around the UK.
The Anonymous Widower 