Equinor’s digital support centres were established to help create higher value, improve safety and reduce emissions from the company’s installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). Thus, they have fruitful results from the first onshore-supported fields, according to Equinor’s statement.
On January 7, two centres were officially launched at Sandsli in Bergen by the Norwegian petroleum and energy minister, Kjell-Børge Freiberg.
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Equinor aspires to grow the value creation from NCS by more than $2 billion from 2020 to 2025 by supportive onshore operations. The innovation, as stated by the company, is the digital centres that will support the monitoring of the energy consumption to decrease CO2 emissions from NCS operations.
Also, by 2021, all Equinor fields on the NCS will be powered by manned onshore centres in Bergen, Stravanger and Stjørdal.
According to Arne Sigve Nylund, executive vice president for Development and Production Norway, increased production was majorly experienced from the Grane, Gina Krog and Åsgard fields, which have been supported by the integrated operations support center (IOC) since September.
That’s why, he continued, the Aasta Hansteen and Norne fields have also been connected to the centre.
Moreover, the IOC centre will be prior to decreasing the CO2 emissions from the NCS. As quoted by Equinor’s press release, ‘Equinor has implemented more than 300 energy efficiency measures on NCS installations from 2008 and up to the present, reducing annual CO2 emissions by almost 1.6 million tonnes so far’.
Another benefit will be that the IOC centre will enhance the collaboration of the company with the its suppliers and partners and increase the information being transferred.
Additionally, the company aspires to limit the emissions by 3.2 million tonnes annually by 2030.
Arne Sigve Nylund addressed that
Digitalization, innovation and use of new technology will allow us to recover resources that are not profitable now.
Also, for the next centre to be opened on January 14, the Geo Operations Center (GOC), is to ensure of efficient and better geoscience control of drilling operations as well as higher cost saving and personnel safety.
Concluding, monitoring and control of offshore well path drilling will be moved from offshore installations and the various onshore units to a joint geoscience operations center. The GOC is expected to save NOK 270 million annually.
