The oil and gas industry is facing increasing expectations from a multitude of stakeholders. In the public domain, zero tolerance of failure is a reality. Consistent, transparent and predictable operation is expected from this industry.
Two areas of growing concern and complexity add to the challenges: future field developments in Arctic areas and aging installations. In both of these areas DNV has a role to play.
Arctic areas
To meet the world's increasing energy demand, oil and gas must be produced in new geographical areas.
The industry is now heading into the Arctic. There the oil companies will produce oil and gas under demanding conditions, and they must do so safely.
How can the industry manage the risks involved in this? What is necessary to succeed in these new areas?
DNV has long experience of technology qualification, verification and certification related to the offshore sector. Many of our offshore standards have become reference standards for international engineering and oil companies. Russian energy major Gazprom, in fact, adopted our offshore standard as its corporate standard. The offshore standard has also been used, for instance, for the Kizomba field off Angola and for fields off the coast of Brazil.
We will continue developing existing and new standards to be at the forefront when it comes to technology for ensuring safe operations.
Aging installations
While the oil companies are investing in new geographical areas, they also have to pay attention to their existing installations. Many installations around the world have exceeded their initially defined lifetimes. Not all of these have been particularly well maintained over the years. Efforts are necessary to make aging installations safe and as efficient as possible.
The technical standard of old facilities is becoming a key issue for the industry. We are cooperating with energy companies to raise the standard of their aging installations, offering assistance ranging from asset integrity management and support to due diligence services.
The combination of our extensive technological know-how and risk-based principles is helping the industry to develop sound risk-management strategies and appropriate measures to mitigate risk and ensure the quality, safety and environmental performance of their operations.