Huisman has designed a new harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rig that can be powered with onshore-produced hydroelectricity but also with floating wind turbines.
The Dutch firm said that the new rig design was aimed at making the extraction of fossil fuels as sustainable as possible due to a transition to renewable energy.
According to Huisman, ensuring reliable access to energy at this time, Europe is being forced to consider a range of alternative sources. This includes the potential of making wider use of North Sea gas reserves – the local offshore production offers the lowest carbon footprint relative to other fossil fuel options such as LNG and coal while providing energy security.
Huisman believes that even this carbon footprint can be reduced. Therefore, it developed a harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rig that will lower emissions significantly. The rig’s efficiency includes a low drag electrified robotic drilling system that offers consistent speed of operation as well as a unique heave compensated drilling floor, able to operate in rough seas.
This results in increased productivity and uptime of the rig. Together with the rig’s sustainability-focused hybrid power system, including energy storage systems storing regenerated energy, this ensures that emissions can be reduced by 30-40 percent per well. A 40 percent reduction of onboard personnel and a large functional deck space contribute to this emission reduction.
Ideally, the rig is powered with onshore-produced hydroelectricity, via a power cable from a nearby platform. Alternatively, it can be powered by two floating wind turbines, moored next to the rig. Both radical, but realistic solutions offer extremely low emissions per well. With the inclusion of wind turbines, the reduction in emissions can be increased to as much as 86 percent.
“It’s clear that we need an intermediary solution while we make the transition to renewables. And that, if Europe is to have a reliable source of energy for the time being, this is going to involve the consumption of oil and gas. We think it’s important that this exploitation of fossil fuel reserves is done as efficiently and cleanly as possible. It is our vision to drive the growth of renewable energy while making fossil fuel extraction more sustainable,” Dieter Wijning, Huisman Product Manager, said.
“The increased efficiency offered by the new drilling rig offers cost savings of 25 percent per well. The greatest gain here, however, is that the added efficiency also facilitates a significant reduction in emissions – up to 86 percent per well,” Jan Atle Andresen, Regional Director of Huisman Norge, added.
