Tag Archives: Equinor

Equinor acquires stake in Bayou Bend CCS Project

Business News, Energy

Equinor has acquired a 25 percent interest in Bayou Bend CCS LLC, positioned to be one of the largest US carbon capture and storage projects located along the Gulf Coast in Southeast Texas.

“Commercial CCS solutions are critical for hard-to-abate industries to meet their climate ambitions while maintaining their activity. Entering Bayou Bend strengthens our low carbon solutions portfolio and supports our ambition to mature and develop 15-30 million tonnes of equity CO2 transport and storage capacity per year by 2035. Our experience from developing carbon storage projects can help advance decarbonization efforts in one of the largest industrial corridors in the US,” said Grete Tveit, senior vice president for Low Carbon Solutions in Equinor.

Bayou Bend is positioned to be one of the largest CCS solutions in the US for industrial emitters, with nearly 140,000 gross acres of pore space for permanent CO2 sequestration and gross potential storage resources of more than one billion metric tons. The Bayou Bend total acreage includes nearly 100,000 gross acres onshore in Chambers and Jefferson Counties, Texas, and approximately 40,000 gross acres offshore Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas.

“We look forward to working together with our partners to further mature this exciting project. Bayou Bend is Equinor’s first announced low carbon solutions project on the Gulf Coast. Alongside our upstream production and offshore wind developments, we’re strengthening our position as a broad energy company and expanding our footprint in the Gulf region,” said Chris Golden, senior vice president and US Country Manager. “Bayou Bend is a significant milestone towards growing our low carbon portfolio in the US.”

Bayou Bend is a joint venture between Chevron U.S.A. Inc., through its Chevron New Energies division, Talos Energy Inc., through its Talos Low Carbon Solutions division, and Equinor. Equinor acquired its 25 percent share through the purchase of Texas Carbon 1 LLC, a subsidiary of Carbonvert. Chevron is the operator with 50 percent interest, and Talos holds 25 percent interest.

Read full story HERE.

How an Oil Company Becomes a Renewables Company

Business News, Energy

Last week a raft of oil majors released their first-quarter results, with companies like Royal Dutch Shell Plc showing a return to pre-pandemic profit levels. At the same time, some of the majors increased their energy transition commitments: as my Bloomberg Intelligence colleagues Salih Yilmaz and Will Hares noted on Twitter, Spanish firm Repsol SA devoted 40% of its capital expenditure to low-carbon projects, and France’s Total SE stated plans to increase its renewable energy capacity five-fold over the next four years.

There are energy-transition commitments, though, and then there are energy-transition results. And on the latter side, one company shines: Norway’s state-owned oil producer, Equinor ASA. It posted more than $2.6 billion of earnings in the first quarter of 2021, 49% of which was from renewable energy. Last quarter, Equinor earned more from renewables than it did from oil and gas exploration and production.

Read the full article HERE

Equinor completes sale of its US onshore assets in the Bakken

Business News, Energy

Equinor and Grayson Mill Energy have completed their transaction that was previously announced in February 2021.

As a result, Equinor has divested all its operated and non-operated acreage in the Bakken field in the US states of North Dakota and Montana to Grayson Mill Energy, along with associated midstream assets, for a total consideration of around USD 900 million.

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Norway grants 61 new offshore oil and gas exploration licenses

Business News, Energy, Shipping & Offshore,

OSLO – Thirty companies have received offers of ownership interests in a total of 61 production licenses on the Norwegian Shelf in the Awards in Predefined Areas (APA) 2020.

The authorities assessed applications from a total of 33 companies during autumn 2020.

Of the 61 production licenses, 34 are in the North Sea, 24 are in the Norwegian Sea and 3 are in the Barents Sea. 12 of the production licenses are additional acreage to existing production licenses.

“This year’s award of 61 new production licenses to as many as 30 companies shows that the petroleum industry still has significant expectations of making profitable discoveries on the Norwegian Shelf,” says director license management in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Kalmar Ildstad.

“It’s positive that the companies are showing significant interest in exploring in areas with known geology, and close to existing infrastructure,” says Ildstad.

The player landscape in this APA award is very diverse. Both small companies and major international players are being offered exploration acreage.

Equinor has been awarded 17 new APA production licenses – 10 as operator and seven as partner.

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World’s First Pilot Plant for Floating Solar Power in Rough Waters

Business News, Energy

Equinor, Moss Maritime to test floating solar generation offshore Norway

OSLO – Equinor is already an offshore wind major. Now the company will explore the opportunities within offshore solar power. Together with Moss Maritime the company wants to start testing off the island of Frøya.

“If we succeed here, we can succeed anywhere,” says Hanne Wigum. She is the head of the Equinor technology unit focusing on wind and solar power.

The plan is to build a floating pilot plant off Frøya near Trondheim in the late summer of 2021. It is set to become the world’s first pilot plant for floating solar power in rough waters.

The municipality of Frøya has been positive to and is involved in the planning of the pilot plant. Equinor has filed an application with the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate. Planned to measure 80 m x 80 m, the plant will tower less than 3 metres over the sea surface. According to plans the pilot will be tested for minimum one year. The project is a collaboration between Equinor and the technology company Moss Maritime.

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Equinor selected for largest-ever US offshore wind award

Business News, Energy

Today, Equinor was selected to provide New York State with offshore wind power in one of the largest renewable energy procurements in the U.S. to date.

Under the award, Equinor and incoming strategic partner bp will provide generation capacity of 1,260 megawatts (MW) renewable offshore wind power from Empire Wind 2, and another 1,230 MW of power from Beacon Wind 1 – adding to the existing commitment to provide New York with 816 MW of renewable power from Empire Wind 1 – totaling 3.3 gigawatts (GW) of power to the State. The execution of the procurement award is subject to the successful negotiation of a purchase and sale agreement, which the partnership looks forward to finalizing together with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

As part of the award by NYSERDA, the companies will partner with the State to transform two venerable New York ports – the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal (SBMT) and the Port of Albany – into large-scale offshore wind working industrial facilities that position New York to become an offshore wind industry hub.

“These projects will deliver homegrown, renewable electricity to New York and play a major role in the State’s ambitions of becoming a global offshore wind hub. The U.S. East Coast is one of the most attractive growth markets for offshore wind in the world. The successful bids for Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 represent a game-changer for our offshore wind business in the U.S. and underline Equinor’s commitment to be a leading company in the energy transition. These projects will also create value through economies of scale and support our strategic ambition of becoming a global offshore wind major,” says Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor.

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Shell and Equinor develop smart inventory management system with Microsoft Azure

Business News, Energy, Technology,

THE HAGUE / STAVANGER – Royal Dutch Shell and Norwegian Energy Company Equinor will develop the next generation of Shell Inventory Optimizer, a solution that leverages advanced analytics on historical data to optimize operational spare part inventory levels. Building on news of the recent Strategic Alliance with Shell, Microsoft will be supporting Shell and Equinor with the co-development of the tool, which runs on Microsoft Azure.

The goal is for energy companies to have better control over available equipment and to optimize stock levels. Since first deployment in 2017, this proprietary solution has been deployed across Shell’s Upstream, Manufacturing and Integrated Gas assets globally, generating millions of dollars in value through optimized stock levels.

In March 2020, Shell and Equinor signed a Digital Collaboration Agreement to work together on digital projects in areas of mutual benefit (and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including competition and anti-trust laws). Next generation Shell Inventory Optimizer is the first collaboration to take-place under this agreement.

Dan Jeavons, General Manager Data Science at Shell, said “The collaboration to co-develop the next stage of Shell Inventory optimizer with Equinor is an important milestone for both our companies; it speaks to the digital cultural and technical strengths we share, and our history of successful collaborations in the supply chain domain and the value we can achieve working in partnership. I look forward to further collaboration with Equinor in the supply-chain and decarbonization domain, with the continued support of our mutual partner Microsoft.”

The co-development project will be run through a joint engineering team with digital specialists from Shell, Equinor and Microsoft all contributing. The tool integrates Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, Azure Databricks and Azure Datalake and will see the Shell Inventory Optimizer enhanced with new features to further optimize the algorithm, driving the recommendations and an improved user experience. Both Equinor and Shell users will benefit from these new features. For Equinor, this tool could reduce inventory inflow with as much as 13%, which could save millions.

Oddvar Vermedal, VP Emerging Digital Technology for Equinor’s Digital Centre of Excellence, said “We see many mutual benefits as both companies have applied cloud-based digital solutions as an approach to our industry’s digital transformation. Such collaborations are increasingly important to improve safety, increase value creation, reduce emissions and develop low carbon solutions by applying digital technologies. The first step with the initiative will be to safeguard our operations by rightsizing the inventory level. This will reduce the inventory inflow and establish optimized level of inventory stocks in Equinor. The next step in the co-development will focus on reducing carbon footprint in our supply chain. Therefore, this collaboration is an important step in our digital transformation journey”.

Microsoft will be working with Shell and Equinor to the develop the next evolution of Shell Inventory Optimizer, running on Microsoft Azure.

“We are committed to supporting the transformation of the energy sector, co-developing solutions with organizations such as Shell and Equinor that aid in the energy transition,” said Darryl Willis, vice president of Energy, Microsoft. “Digital technology is transforming key industry areas such as the supply chain and we’re continuing to provide new digital solutions that support carbon reduction ambitions and advance the transition to a net-zero emissions future.”

The collaboration is the first of a series of planned co-innovation initiatives across the wider energy value chain (including themes such as maintenance, production optimization and supply chain management) which are in development.

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Norway agrees to fund Equinor’s Northern Lights CO2 project

Business News, Energy

OSLO – Following a historic vote in parliament, the Norwegian government announced its funding decision for the Northern Lights CO2 transport and storage project.

The funding decision demonstrates the Norwegian government’s support for the development of a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) value chain, which is essential if Europe is to achieve its carbon neutrality targets.

Northern Lights will be the first of its kind – an open and available infrastructure enabling transport of CO2 from industrial capture sites to a terminal in Øygarden for intermediate storage before being transported by pipeline for permanent storage in a reservoir 2600 meters under the seabed.

The project is the transport and storage component of Longship, the Norwegian Government’s full-scale carbon capture and storage project.

“Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is important to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. “Longship” is the largest climate project ever in the Norwegian industry and will contribute substantially to the development of CCS as an efficient mitigation measure. Working together with the industry, the step-by-step approach has confirmed that the project is feasible. I want to thank the Northern Lights partners Equinor, Shell and Total – and I am looking forward to our continued cooperation,” says Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Tina Bru.

“Northern Lights is a true pioneering project and the first of its kind offering a solution to cut emissions from industrial sources in Norway and Europe. We are ready to start realising this project that will be an important part of the climate solution. I want to thank the Norwegian government and for the broad political support in making this a reality. I am certain that we together with our partners and suppliers will make this project a success,” says Equinor CEO Anders Opedal.

“The Norwegian government’s initiative and support for what will be the world’s first open source CO2, transport and storage project shows real vision and commitment. Northern Lights is designed to provide a service to industrial emitters who can now take action on emissions that can’t be avoided. This is key to bringing real progress towards tackling climate change. Shell will play our part in making this a reality,” says Shell CEO Ben van Beurden.

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Business Wire: Equinor Ready to Expand Offshore Wind in New York, Invest Locally

Business News, Energy, , ,

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Equinor submitted bids into New York’s second offshore wind solicitation, building on its strong commitment to deliver renewable energy to the Empire State. In keeping with New York’s commitment to a just energy transition Equinor would provide large investments in economically disadvantaged communities.

Equinor submitted its proposals to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in response to the state’s most recent solicitation requesting proposals for up to 2,500 megawatts of offshore wind and a multi-port infrastructure investment plan.

Read entire article here

Reuters: Microsoft in deal with Equinor for Norway CO2 storage project

Business News, Energy, , ,

Microsoft Corp has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway’s Microsoft Corp has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway’s Equinor to explore the use of a carbon dioxide storage facility as the tech firm seeks to erase its carbon footprint, it said on Wednesday.

The world’s largest software company pledged in January to remove enough CO2 by 2050 to account for all its emissions since its founding in 1975, and to invest $1 billion in a carbon removal technology.

Microsoft will become a technology partner in the Northern Lights project, part of a wider Norwegian effort to develop carbon capture technology at industrial sites and store CO2 under the seabed, Equinor said at a news conference in Oslo.