UK North Sea operators have a range of technologies at their disposal to quantify their emissions more accurately. Collaboration can drive further improvements in these solutions.

UK North Sea operators have at hand a growing and diverse array of technologies to help them detect, quantify and ultimately eliminate methane emissions. All these strategems have different strengths and limitations.

Collaboration between the oil and gas industry, technology providers, financiers and government will be critical for driving forward further innovations in these solutions.

The UK North Sea has already made strong progress in addressing its methane emissions. They were down 45% in 2022, versus 2018, according to the latest data published by Offshore Energies UK. Indeed, the sector has already achieved a methane intensity of only 0.15%. This is below the 0.2% it previously aimed for by 2025 under its Methane Action Plan.

Notably, the industry only accounts for a mere 3% of the country’s methane emissions.

Even so, more can always be done. There are various key drivers behind these efforts. In 2021, the North Sea Transition Deal offered the industry support for low-carbon investments in exchange for decarbonising their conventional operations, for instance. There are also global initiatives, such as the Global Methane Pledge and UN-backed Oil and Gas Methane Partnership (OGMP) 2.0, in addition to ESG ratings.

To help meet the challenge, operators have tapped into a diverse ecosystem of technologies that can better detect and quantify emissions. These range from fixed sensors and handheld instruments to drones, planes and satellites. Meanwhile, systems employing AI-based data analysis, to get as accurate estimates of emissions as possible, are also on the menu.

Bridging the gap

There has been a sustained commitment to reducing emissions from offshore producing assets in the UK North Sea over the last few years, Rebecca Allison, chief operating officer of the Aberdeen-based Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), told E-FWD. The NZTC is a not-for-profit organisation that collaborates with industry, government and academia. It aims to support innovations in the technologies needed to achieve results.

“This is not something that has just landed on us in the last six to 12 months,” she said. “There’s been a lot of work and activity, involving operators, the supply chain and the development community. What we need to do is bridge that gap between what we currently have in terms of technology and what we need to get to.”

Larger operators are not necessarily better positioned than smaller ones to adopt these technologies.

“Smaller companies are a bit more agile and are willing to take on new and emerging technologies – they are willing to be the first adopters,” she said. “I think the larger companies may have bigger budgets but sometimes they have internal red tape to go through and a lot more challenges to get new technology into life. It’s a mixture. We’ve worked with all sizes of operators, and we’re not seeing any budget constraints from any of them. Because there is a strong commitment that we have to do this.”

This technology suit is still relatively new, she said. Some of the providers are still in the start-up, pre-revenue phase. As operators embrace modern detection and quantification methods, the North Sea is shifting away from the outdated use of emissions factors. This is where emissions are quantified not through inspection of individual assets and activities, but through estimates of what emissions different types of assets and activities can produce.

Overcoming unique challenges

The UK North Sea poses unique challenges for detection and quantification of emissions. Rigs and other assets can be located far from shore and across a broad area, making it harder to deploy equipment cost-effectively. The region is also known for its rough seas, strong winds and frequent storms. This can hinder the deployment of measurement equipment. High humidity, temperature fluctuations and atmospheric changes can also have an impact on the performance of monitoring equipment.

The various technologies and methods for detection and quantification also have their strengths and limitations.

One technology offer comes from GHGSat, a Quebec-based emissions monitoring company. This deploys small-sized satellites with high-resolution image spectrometers to observe emissions by detecting absorption of methane-sensitive light.

While greenhouse gas monitoring from space is decades-old, the company can track emissions at the individual facility level. It boasts the the lowest detection threshold of any other satellite monitoring service.

Glint spot

Satellite monitoring of methane emissions is trickier offshore, as water absorbs sunlight in the infrared spectrum. This essentially makes it harder for sensors to get a signal back, Dan Wicks, the managing director of GHGSat’s UK business, told E-FWD.

The company has overcome this by performing measurements at larger viewing angles, targeting the area where sunlight reflects off the sea surface the most, known as the “glint spot”.

Another solutions provider active in the North Sea is SeekOps. This fits its lightweight SeekIR laser spectrometer gas sensors onto unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). SeekOps has been working with major operators such as BP and Equinor for years to hone its performance.

“We’ve been working on ensuring that the uncertainty in our measurement was 30% or better and that the minimum detection level was significantly better,” CEO Iain Cooper told E-FWD. “Our offshore detection level now is two hundredths of a kilogram an hour. So we see almost everything that comes from an offshore platform.”

SeekOps also works in the Gulf of Mexico, offshore Trinidad, West Africa and Australia. The North Sea’s low level of emissions makes the job of finding what sources do exist harder.

“The North Sea is relatively clean of emissions, compared to some of these other regions, which is why a sensitive sensor such as ours is essential,” Cooper said.

Disruptive tech

For SeekOps, key challenges are logistics and avoiding any disruption to oil and gas operations.

“We want to be minimally invasive to any of the operations. We certainly don’t want to have any production shutdowns,” he continued. “This is another reason why we prefer to deploy off supply boats rather than the platform itself.”

Weather is also an issue. SeekOps does not operate in the rain. The battery life of the drones it uses is about 40-45 minutes, allowing the drone to do a full inspection around the platform, “though it does mean more of a staccato operation”.

SeekOps sees itself as an important piece of the puzzle in detection and quantification of emissions, but just one piece of many. Whether it is unmanned systems, manned aircraft, satellites, continuous monitors and fixed sensors, all methods have their capabilities and limitations, Cooper said.

GHGSat and SeekOps both offer top-down methods of tracking emissions. These provide operators with a clear picture of what emissions are being produced, but can have limitations in pinpointing specific sources, the NZTC’s Allison noted. These methods tend to produce higher estimates of emissions than bottom-up techniques, such as fixed on-site sensors and inspections by personnel with handheld cameras.

It is by integrating these two “complementary” approaches that companies can validate their estimates and gain a more reliable understanding of emissions, Allison said. “This validation across the two systems helps make us more confident with the numbers we are producing.”

Emissions collaboration

NZTC has worked to foster collaboration between industry and technology developers, Allison said. One way it has done this is by investing in innovative projects. In 2021, it was involved with a project alongside SeekOps, using UAVs provided by Flylogix. These carried out 12,500 km of unmanned flight to collect 2.5 million real-time methane concentration readings across assets held by six major operators – BP, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, TAQA and Harbour Energy.

Another project backed by the NZTC involves a company called Accord. This employs digital solutions to measure the efficiency of flaring and gas recovery. It works with multiple operators.

These collaborative approaches, involving the sharing of data, knowledge and understanding, are effective at supporting innovation and are also characteristic of the North Sea, Allison said.

Government can also play a role here. In December last year, the UK Space Agency provided funding to GHGSat to make 300 observations at sites identified by the UN Environment Programme’s International Methane Emissions Observatory (IMEO). IMEO is obtaining data from the initiative, while GHGSat gained from the research and development it could conduct through the work.

Common ground

Notably, both GHGSat and SeekOps count the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative’s (OGCI) Climate Investment fund as an investor. OGCI comprises many of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. Beyond financial support, this too has fostered collaboration between industry and technology innovators, Cooper said.

Cooper veiws the OGMP 2.0 reporting framework for methane emissions as the key driver behind company efforts in the North Sea. Many jurisdictions are incorporating OGMP 2.0 standards into their methane emissions regulation, including most recently the EU.

Regulation of methane emissions in the UK is not as stringent as jurisdictions such as Norway, but greater regulatory pressure can be expected in the future.

For the time being, operators are trying to get ahead the curve and meet future regulations before they arrive. In the more immediate sense, they are also competing to demonstrate their environmental bona fides to investors.

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