Decarbonization of Offshore Oil and Gas Installations with Offshore Wind and Energy Storage Solutions

Abstract

Abstract In light of India's commitments to COP26, there is a sense of urgency to accelerate the energy transition and to decarbonize the energy portfolio of oil & gas companies. This paper discusses the following decarbonization strategies; (a) Installing offshore wind farms and battery solutions for providing power to process platforms and commercialization of the remaining power, (b) Integrating solar with Li-ion energy storage solutions in unmanned platforms. This work outlines how a reliable energy storage solution can be the key to stepping towards this transition. The offshore unmanned platforms have conventional battery solutions such as: Lead-acid batteries - Installed to meet no sun days & also provide power during the night.Ni-Cd batteries - Integrated with primary power sources such as gas turbines provide power in manned platforms. Conventional batteries have limitations in terms of energy density, frequent replacement period, footprint, and their heavy weight. With the introduction of renewable energy sources such as offshore wind & solar, a very reliable solution is the need of the hour to supply uninterrupted power during energy fluctuations due to wind speed or intermittency of solar and to limit the usage of carbon-emitting sources such as Diesel generators. This makes Li-ion batteries one of the favourable candidates for powering offshore installations where space is a constraint and due to its added advantages of high energy density and low maintenance requirements. It also discusses how offshore wind can be a potential candidate for a cluster of wells and process platforms where the power requirement is in Megawatts and extra power generated can be fed back to the onshore grid nearby through PPA agreements. A pilot project has been considered for the purpose of the study and different cost components to assist in techno commercial analysis of such offshore wind projects of 50 MW.