Energy transition requires solutions from the oil & gas industry
Leslie Beyer, CEO, Energy Workforce & Technology Council
The world’s next energy transformation is underway and transitioning to a lower carbon future will require ingenuity from all sources, especially the energy services and technology sector. As global energy demand rises, we must invest in all forms of energy. A successful energy transition is not a shift from one fuel source to another, but a comprehensive focus on the reduction of emissions across all energy systems.
This transition will be driven by cutting-edge technologies that must meet demand for energy that will grow by 25% over the next two decades while simultaneously decreasing greenhouse gas emissions to slow climate change. These goals are achievable with realistic energy policies, wise investment and innovation. Energy, as the underpinning of modern life, should not be a place for partisan or ideological fights. It is an area of opportunities and challenges with scientific and technical solutions.
The transition must be smart and realistic with a focus on improving lives. Nearly one billion people across the world lack access to reliable electricity, and this transformation should raise the standard of living in these areas of energy poverty. As we focus on providing developing economies the energy needed to grow a middle class, we must not pull any options from the table. Many of these economies rely on coal-fired power generation that could easily be shifted to natural gas, resulting in significantly reduced emissions.
Because we need to provide more energy while reducing carbon, it’s incumbent upon oil and gas companies to develop the technologies that will result in emissions reduction and determine the success of the transition. That means we’ll all look to the men and women of the Energy Workforce & Technology Council’s member companies and the energy services and technology sector. These are companies who are literally powering the world with a demonstrated ability to develop and deploy energy technology solutions on a global scale.
Three types of actions will be critical:
- Cleaning the core — Minimizing emissions and maximizing efficiency from the current infrastructure and value chain.
- Accelerating the transition — Replacing today’s sources of energy and methods of consumption with cleaner and zero emissions alternatives.
- Extending the frontier — Scaling solutions to commercialize technologies beyond what’s feasible today.
The Council strives each day to support the work being done in each of these areas by its member companies. Technologies such as electric frac (eFrac), gas turbines, carbon capture utilization and storage, artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the future of energy. The energy services sector is at the forefront of developing key innovations in areas where they already have experience and expertise, including:
- geothermal
- fleet electrification
- dynamic gas blending and dual fuel fleets
- complete system automation
- deep shale CO2 injections
- CO2 sequestration in onshore and offshore rock formations
- methane leak detection using thermal energy cameras and drone or airplane monitoring
- energy storage technology such as grid-scale nickel-hydrogen batteries, and
- offshore remote operations.
Companies in the energy services sector are home to high-tech employment opportunities for diverse candidates. The sector is comprised of engineers, data scientists, geologists, programmers, robotics experts, geologists, physicists and many more areas of specialty and knowledge. For young people, the energy industry is an exciting place to change the world by working on the frontiers of scientific and technological discovery. Oil and gas are going to be part of the energy mix for decades to come, and this skilled workforce represents the next generation of energy leadership.
The industry is also making strides to provide a more equitable and diverse workplace. A striking 79 percent of new graduates value inclusion policies, and the oil and gas industry is responding. Our recent Inclusion & Diversity Study shows that despite the pandemic and lower oil prices in 2020, the percentage of women in the energy technology and services sector rose from 16% in 2018 to nearly 20%, countering a recent trend of women dropping out of the overall national workforce.
We can be optimistic about the future of oil and gas and its cleaner development because of the commercial opportunities presented in the energy transition. Our success will be built on our ability to form alliances, innovate and advocate on behalf of wise policies that support our sector’s critical work.
Our industry has overcome enormous challenges in the past. We know how to scale projects and deliver technology that shifts geopolitical markets, reduce energy poverty and change the balance of world power. We are a partner on the path to a lower carbon future.
