Agenda

Speaker(s):

​

Saleh Al Anboori
Conference Chairperson
Director-General of Exploration and Production of Oil and Gas
Ministry of Energy and Minerals
Sultanate of Oman

The oil and gas industry continues to play a key role in growing economies and improving living standards in an increasingly discombobulated world with ever-increasing uncertainties and demands.

The recent triumph of the Industry in shale gas and shale oil, mainly in the USA, which is yet to realise its full potential across the world, clearly demonstrate that the natural challenges which lie in subsurface or in deep-water developments are easier to master than those above the surface conundrums. They are less predictable and hardly measurable, such as major oil price crisis, world economic rivalries, exclusionism, and popularism.

Despite the aforementioned uncertainties, the industry has managed to deliver the energy the world needs to drive global economic growth, improve standards of living, and make such energy more accessible and affordable to all people. To keep doing this, the industry has clearly had to constantly adjust, reshape and transform itself to continue delivering its mission.

In this plenary session, distinguished industry leaders will share their assessment of what shapes they expect the industry will take in the future and what changes are required by the industry to realise such shapes.

It has been a little under six years since 196 countries negotiated the Paris Agreement, committing to taking steps to limit the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees. There are currently 27 countries with carbon tax implemented. Furthermore, 64 carbon pricing initiatives are currently in force across the globe. Together, these initiatives have been estimated to cover 21.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. In practice, and as an example even though the European Union has one of the best examples of a cap-and-trade system, as of September 2021, the price of carbon per tonne in the EU programme is 62.45 Euros, and continues to rise. 

Carbon taxes are an accelerated initiative to deploy investments driven by the economics of profitability and tax rebates of decarbonization. However, for regions such as the Middle East, and in particular oil producing countries, balancing initiatives for global environment, social responsibility and reducing carbon footprint, with the economics of profitability per barrel can be challenging in the absence of carbon tax law.

Although we have witnessed advancements in projects of carbon-free hydrogen from oil-based feedstocks, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage, and many more innovative approaches, efficient business models and economic framework remain crucial in ensuring the long-term success of these projects.

This panel aims to discuss the economics of decarbonization initiatives, and processes that can be implemented for their successful delivery.

The Global Energy scene is witnessing shifting dynamics of the pressure to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel, reduction in CO2 emissions from the Oil & Gas Industry, and the need to drive towards a cleaner energy mix. Today the petroleum industry faces arguably an existential challenge to continue supplying the world with its energy needs while reducing its carbon footprint to a minimum and in some decades to come to zero, such a path will require significant investments and different ways of working.

In this session, panel members will share their insights on how their organizations are preparing to stay resilient and competitive in an age of potentially lower demand for Oil & Gas, while handling increasing costs to cater for decarbonization. Some insights will be shared on how operators are balancing stricter investment sanctioning of projects to meet lower GHGs emissions, while on the other hand expecting a reduction in demand for Oil & Gas, given the rise of other energy forms.

The Energy Transition towards renewable Energy forms is witnessed among most producers and service providing companies around the globe, and is increasing in pace very rapidly. The session will reflect the experience of the companies that have already started, or are maturing in this journey. The session will touch upon other considered measures to decarbonize the Oil & Gas Industry in the form of; Carbon Capture and Storage, Carbon Trading, alternative fuels like Hydrogen, synthetic or biofuels, nature-based solutions and offsets, etc. Also identified enablers to make the change easier, like for example, different investment sources or mechanisms, new technologies or more enabling regulatory frameworks.

This session is bringing together subject matter experts and decision executives who are in the midst of confronting the Challenge of Decarbonizing the Petroleum Industry and leading in the transition towards a cleaner energy mix. In doing so they will bring up how such a challenge is presenting business opportunities leading to more prosperous economies.   

Oil will continue to provide a main energy source to the world for many decades to come. With limited new oil discoveries, the industry’s focus is on increasing recoveries from the existing resource base, some of which are in very mature oilfields. While the IOR (Improved Oil Recovery) methods, mainly waterflood and gas injection, have been applied for many decades to supplement reservoir energies, enabling more oil extraction, there are more to be recovered with IOR. The challenges and opportunities lie in applying more cost-effective, more efficient, and higher yielding recoveries. Technology advances, enhanced understanding, and smarter applications offer major opportunities to realise higher values of IOR applications. This is particularly true when coupled with appropriate EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) applications, be it chemical, thermal or miscible gas. The industry has made major strides in EOR applications through significant research and development efforts, field applications, and operational excellence.

In this panel session, panellists will share their valuable perspective, experience and outlook on how the industry is utilising the IOR/EOR oil extraction methods in maximising, and achieving cost-effective oil recoveries through a life cycle approach, application of capital efficiency drive and deployment of technological advancements. The panel will bring together technical leaders and experts from industry and academia to share their experience and exchange ideas in the latest IOR/EOR developments . The scope will cover chemical, miscible gas, thermal/hybrid and improved waterflood from lab investigations, subsurface modelling and optimisation, surveillance and monitoring to related production technology and surface facilities. The panellists will each give an opening address with emphasis on fast field implementation, technology integration and cost reduction, in order to help stimulate Q&A and discussions.

The world is facing the difficult challenge of transitioning to a low carbon energy supply whilst the global demand for energy continues to grow. Gas, with the lowest carbon footprint of the fossil fuels, is seen by many as the key to the energy transition to low carbon.

In the near to mid-term, gas is the only viable replacement for high carbon emitting coal and can fill this gap whilst energy produced from renewable sources grows to be the long-term sustainable solution. In addition, energy from gas is transforming the lives of billions of people all across the globe. This has been made possible through advancement in different transportation systems including LNG.

To play its role in the energy transition the challenge for the gas industry is two-fold, firstly to continue to push the limits for gas field exploration, development, production, transportation and storage; and secondly to do this in a sustainable low carbon way.  This is why technology advancement, modernisation and transformation of the gas industry will need to continue for decades to come.

There are several varieties of carbon pricing systems in use globally.  Some are free market based, others are supported by a jurisdiction.  The bottom line it that an effective carbon pricing system should drive industry to facilitate the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG).  Carbon Pricing should reduce emissions, foster innovation, and lead the adaptation of implementable solutions for decarbonization.  A successful mechanism will also be able to determine or rank the projects which have the greatest impact and prioritize them.

The three main types of carbon pricing mechanisms are carbon levies, cap-and-trade and performance standard systems.  Policy design and pricing stability are two key elements to any system that is effective and efficient.  Competitive systems will foster innovation and growth.  Support by a jurisdiction is critical to the success of any system, notably by supporting a price floor.  This panel will discuss all these factors which come into play to create an effective mechanism.

The oil and gas industry has demonstrated resilience to the repeated cycles of low oil prices by transforming itself efficiently, and innovatively in addressing related challenges to sustainably grow the offshore and marine sector, sharing experiences and exploring innovative methodologies.

The offshore and marine sector is demanding the newest innovative technologies and techniques to find and extract hydrocarbons, minimising the overall need for energy. The oil and gas industry is an energy-intensive industry and finding ways to improve energy efficiency is a necessity for the industry in order to have more resilient projects, and reduces costs along the whole supply chain. Innovative technologies will fundamentally introduce new methods to develop natural reservoirs. The future of the oil and gas industry depends on new ‘breakthrough’ technologies and equipment used by companies for developing complex and difficult fields, and reduce the environmental impact of energy production by allowing more oil and gas to be produced with fewer wells. Advances in technologies will also play a critical role in meeting the global energy demand because they enable the discovery of new resources, access to harsh or remote locations, and the development of challenging reservoirs that previously were not economic to produce; that involve subsea technology and management, FPSO and FLNG operation and maintenance, subsea system and control. In this challenging context, the potential and positive impacts of remote digital operations play a crucial role. Upstream activities imply the need of a sustainable approach for all development phases, starting from drilling and completion up to overall emissions reduction during production operation.