As oil & gas operators continue to enhance and start implementing their plans to meet their regulators’ and customers’ net-zero related demands, the industry should not overlook those low-hanging fruits that will bear results in the short term and, if done well, also contribute to long-term objectives.
An effective approach to energy management will contribute to environmental, operational and financial outcomes, by addressing resource scarcity and price volatility, delivering on license-to-operate considerations, complying with regulations, and delivering a competitive advantage through greater efficiency and enhanced reputation.
Key considerations include:
• Data quality: fuel, power, steam, condensate balances etc will highlight data gaps and inconsistencies.
• Energy usage: inefficiencies in operations such as boilers, turbines, etc., as well as systemic issues, such as cycle efficiency and steam and condensate losses, can be identified.
• Emissions monitoring and reporting: clear and consistent data about fuel and power consumption directly feeds into GHG corporate reporting schemes.
• Quality assurance of monitoring and reporting processes: review and challenge dashboards and reports for completeness, accuracy and clarity.
• Management Operating System: redesign management processes to improve workflows and optimise operations.
• Loss Accounting: Production and Energy Loss Accounting (PELA) improves staff collaboration and effectively tackles hidden losses.
dss+ will share how, using a mix of operational efficiencies and capex, an integrated oil and gas company active in 30 countries identified potential to reduce its emissions by 38m tonnes of CO2 leading to c. USD6m savings pa over four years for just four of its assets.

Oil detections using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and optical satellites combined with Automatic Identification System (AIS) data for source identification have proven valuable for several decades, both as a proactive measure for a given area, but also as a tool for emergency and recovery support in case an oil spill happens.
This study shows the process and summarizes results from both real events and oil spill exercises, where both several different SAR sensors and Optical data have been used. We demonstrate that SAR and Optical data can be used to extract more information than the location and extent of an oil slick, namely information about relative thickness that could aid in locating the actionable oil and thus focusing the clean-up effort. The study further demonstrates how oil drift hindcast and forecast can be used as an add-on with the detection from SAR and optical are also presented.
The results presented demonstrate the high value of quick delivery and the importance of utilizing several sensors and data sources during an emergency, which provides a situational awareness for further decision making. Even though oil detection using SAR is well known, we highlight the value of this technology and show observations of how this can be used to document the polluter, identifying relative oil thickness, quick delivery, and using several different sensors.

More than 7,000 offshore oil and gas (O&G) installations are found across 53 countries throughout the world’s oceans. During their life span these structures provide a habitat for marine life and can support diverse assemblages. At the end of planned service life, they are decommissioned which usually involves the complete removal of infrastructure from the ocean, resulting in the loss of these marine communities.
Various countries have repurposed O&G platforms as artificial reefs an innovative solution to decommissioning, such as the Rigs-to-Reefs (R2R) program developed by United States (US). The repurposing of O&G platforms may have benefits in preserving or enhancing ecological communities, as well as reducing the impacts and costs associated with removal and disposal onshore. The placement of O&G platforms in the ocean as artificial reefs demands prudent planning and high-level management to ensure the anticipated benefits are delivered and potential impacts are managed. The US National Artificial Reef Program (NARP) along with the R2R program provide guidelines on various aspects of artificial reef use, including planning, site selection, design and management.
Since 1980, the US has successfully converted more than 593 O&G platforms to permanent artificial reefs due to the active participation and support of O&G operators, government, local fishing and diving communities. Other countries are also taking initiatives to repurpose their O&G infrastructure. The aim of this paper is to identify key considerations in the repurposing of O&G infrastructure as artificial reefs, using the US R2R program and other geographies as examples.

The development of unconventional gas reserves in eastern Australia has provided important economic development opportunities over the past two decades. In Queensland, for example, over 10,000 coal seam gas wells have been installed between 2011 and end financial year 2022 (Department of Resources records) providing over $1B of production value annually. Unlike parts of the mining industry, where technical issues such as acid and saline mine drainage and topsoil deficits remain top priorities for managing the environmental impacts of the industry, unconventional gas extraction (effectively CSG in eastern Australia) faces challenges precipitated by sheer scale. The technology for the effective decommissioning of CSG wells is well established however the decommissioning task grows as wellfields continue to expand to meet global LNG demand. Simultaneously, conservation groups are calling for tighter scrutiny on fugitive methane emissions. Ensuring the industry retains financial and technical capacity to responsibly P&A these wells and arrest fugitive emissions will remain a challenge during the life of this industry. Accompanying these wells are thousands of well pads, rights of way and compression infrastructure which will require careful rehabilitation management. Again, the technical task of rehabilitation is generally modest; each disturbed area in isolation is a relatively minor rehabilitation exercise. However, the cumulative task of not only rehabilitating disturbed areas but the potential for thousands of interactions with regulators requires new consideration on efficient and effective ways to undertake this work as the industry matures. This paper explores these environmental stewardship challenges and potential solutions to manage the task ahead.

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), a type of distributed fibre-optic sensing, is a technique for taking real-time spatially resolved strain-rate measurements from points along a fibre-optic cable. Several recently published case studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of DAS deployed on un-lit fibre-optic telecommunication infrastructure (dark fibres) for broad-band monitoring of acoustic energy generated by a variety of sources, both natural and anthropogenic, in a variety of environments, both onshore and offshore. In this work, we seek to verify the suitability of dark fibres installed on the North West Shelf (NWS) seabed for monitoring baleen whale migration between Australian and Indonesian waters. Particular focus is given to the pygmy blue whale – a species with the highest protection status in Australia, which biannually migrates through the offshore waters of Western Australia.
A proof of concept, planned for late 2023, involves collecting DAS data over a period of approximately one month from a pre-existing submarine cable between two fixed platforms on the NWS, situated roughly 50 km apart. These data will be used to identify and track whale species from recorded vocalisations. The main objective is to demonstrate that data of this nature can detect vocalising baleen whales and can support adaptive management of offshore activities that may pose a risk to whales. A secondary objective is to demonstrate the suitability of subsea DAS for microseismic monitoring of geologically sequestered carbon beneath the NWS, as a proposed large multi-user carbon capture and storage project is in the vicinity of the fibre in question.

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), a type of distributed fibre-optic sensing, is a technique for taking real-time spatially resolved strain-rate measurements from points along a fibre-optic cable. Several recently published case studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of DAS deployed on un-lit fibre-optic telecommunication infrastructure (dark fibres) for broad-band monitoring of acoustic energy generated by a variety of sources, both natural and anthropogenic, in a variety of environments, both onshore and offshore. In this work, we seek to verify the suitability of dark fibres installed on the North West Shelf (NWS) seabed for monitoring baleen whale migration between Australian and Indonesian waters. Particular focus is given to the pygmy blue whale – a species with the highest protection status in Australia, which biannually migrates through the offshore waters of Western Australia.
A proof of concept, planned for late 2023, involves collecting DAS data over a period of approximately one month from a pre-existing submarine cable between two fixed platforms on the NWS, situated roughly 50 km apart. These data will be used to identify and track whale species from recorded vocalisations. The main objective is to demonstrate that data of this nature can detect vocalising baleen whales and can support adaptive management of offshore activities that may pose a risk to whales. A secondary objective is to demonstrate the suitability of subsea DAS for microseismic monitoring of geologically sequestered carbon beneath the NWS, as a proposed large multi-user carbon capture and storage project is in the vicinity of the fibre in question.