Offshore staff
LONDON – Britain’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) sees strong potential for a new interactive mapping application that shows the location of every energy-related site on the UK continental shelf (UKCS).
The OGA worked with The Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland to create the app, which lists more than 60 in-construction or active wind, wave and tidal sites throughout the shelf along with recently awarded carbon capture and storage (CCS) licenses and 489 petroleum license.
The app reveals the proximity of existing oil and gas infrastructure to wind farms, electrical cables and CCS sites, helping interested parties to assess the potential for re-use when undertaking field decommissioning reviews.
It can also be used for prioritizing areas for seismic surveys ahead of a wind farm development is built, and to identify locations for platform electrification, gas-to-wire schemes, and green hydrogen production.
The map data stores details about the infrastructure, and combined with spatial locations, can support activities such as site survey co-operation, area planning, conflict resolution, and disaster response.
According to the OGA, the mapping application is automatically updated as each organization logs new information, and is the first instance in which all oil and gas and renewables sites have been presented together.
Adrian Fox, head of Offshore Assets at The Crown Estate, said the project would make it easier “for customers to view vital data about existing offshore infrastructure, which will support the co-ordinated growth of the renewable energy sector.”
10/27/2020
