With less than two weeks to go before SPE Offshore Europe 2015, we spoke with DNV GL Oil & Gas CEO Elizabeth Tørstad, who will be visiting the show, about technology trends and requirements in the offshore oil and gas sector.
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DNV GL Oil & Gas CEO Elizabeth Tørstad. Image from DNV GL. |
DNV GL Oil & Gas CEO Elizabeth Tørstad has a deep footing in both technology and business administration, with roles as DNV GL’s Chief Technology Officer and Head of Department for Deepwater Technology Development and Technology Qualification under her belt. She has a Master of Science from the University of Oslo and Business Administration from the University of Bergen.
Q. As a CEO, with a technology and engineering background, how do you see the role of technology in today’s (upstream offshore) business environment?
We are moving towards an even more connected and data-savvy world and the industry needs to be prepared to take full advantage of digitalization and “internet of things” in terms of efficiencies and safety. There are many challenges as well and maybe one of the key ones is identifying and preventing increasing cyber security threats to installations and systems.
Q. Where are the main opportunities in this space and what are the risks?
The greatest benefits in cost control will be achieved through standardization, replication, simplification and advanced supply chain management. If we take a look at the acceptance of standardization in the maritime and other industries, and compare that to oil and gas, we see a significant gap where complexity can be reduced, and cost efficiency can be increased.
In South Korea, unfamiliar specification and processes result in re-work and delays and variations in owners, operators and regulations requirements add more complexity. We have initiated a JIP working with the yards there to help address that and we believe that we can trim new build costs resulting in a 7-15% saving potential through standardized processes. This would equate to a NOK 3.5 billion (£270 million) saving on total cost for a typical tension leg platform.
Put simply, standardization can reduce complexity in today’s operations, while also helping the industry to adapt and plan for tomorrow’s challenges.
Q. As a former board member for the Norwegian Space Centre, what could the oil industry learn from the space industry and vice versa?
The oil and gas industry can learn from the high tech space industry about leveraging the opportunities that IT development and use of big data offers us. I see that they have competence that can help us to develop new solutions. We are for example currently working on developing sensor-based environmental monitoring so it is also about setting direction to encourage and empower a highly skilled workforce to engage. Further, we have also been inspired by the space industry and their research development on advanced safety modelling of human and organizational errors as well as uncertainty assessments.
Q. Can we balance the drive for new technologies with the need to reduce overheads while maintaining safety?
The industry is very concerned with cost management, but I think the focus should be on managing complexity. By simplifying what we do as an industry, not only can we manage cost, but we can we can also minimize risk, enhance safety and open up for innovation.
At DNV GL, we believe that greater collaboration and the pan-industry development of new technology and innovation are key enablers to safely reducing costs.
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