OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGIES & MARKETS
The Stena Carron drillship is also working in the Guyana/Suriname Basin. Over the past year, Stena Drilling has secured new
contracts and contract extensions for its rigs in Guyana/Suriname and on the UK Continental Shelf.

These three KPIs will be critical in helping the industry lower
emissions from its offshore drilling operations. This means the
offshore sector needs to deploy low-carbon drilling solutions in
the immediate future, particularly as operators focus on reach-
ing their emission-reduction targets, Mr Reinertsen said. To that
end, Stena Drilling announced in January 2022 that its fleet had
achieved ISO 50001:2018 accreditation , which specifies require-
ments for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improv-
ing an energy management system . The intended outcome is
to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in
achieving continual improvement of energy performance and the
energy management system.

“It’s important that we continue to improve our practices, and
that means improving our drilling techniques to reduce the time
spent on a well. The less time you spend on the well, the fewer
emissions you have. I think most major drilling contractors have
been moving in that direction,” Mr Reinertsen said.

Stena Drilling has also been focusing its activities on Guyana,
with the Stena DrillMAX and Stena Carron drillships working in
the area. The Guyana/Surname region has been a major offshore
hotspot in recent years, dominated by ExxonMobil through a slew
of discoveries since May 2015, most recently with Fangtooth and
Lau Lau, announced in January.

Other operators are also starting to make progress there.

Following positive results from the Kawa-1 exploration well,
CGX Energy and Frontera Energy announced in February that
they would focus on exploration at the Corentyne Block offshore
Guyana in 2022.

“I think anyone in the offshore drilling industry would agree
that what we’ve seen coming out of Guyana and Suriname are
very promising results that have already led to a lot of activity,”
Mr Reinertsen said. “The area’s certainly a hotspot, and we all feel
optimistic that this high level of activity will continue.”
32 Stena has also recently picked up various contracts for its two
semisubmersibles on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). While
operator investment in the region is still low, Mr Reinertsen
said he believes interest could improve in the coming years.

“We’re seeing more work manifest on the UKCS instead of being
postponed year-on-year. That’s a cause for optimism, to actually
see more activity. We’ve seen some of the bigger fields owned
by the larger operators now going through the approval process
internally, and there have been rumors that several operators
are relooking at the figures to see what’s feasible. That’s another
reason to be optimistic.”
Developing mature assets
In recent years, the UKCS has become somewhat of an after-
thought in the North Sea drilling landscape, especially compared
with the prolific Norwegian sector. The bulk of conversation on
the UKCS has centered around decommissioning, plugging and
abandoning mature assets. However, things are changing with
the Ukraine crisis highlighting the need for energy security, both
in Europe at large and particularly in the UK . The latter imported
37% of all oil and gas consumed in 2021, according to the latest
Business Outlook released on 29 March by the Offshore Energies
UK (OEUK), formerly Oil & Gas UK.

Although the UK government has said it is still committed to
developing renewable energy for a low-carbon future, the coun-
try is encouraging more short-term oil and gas exploration and
development to help reduce its reliance on foreign imports.

“Given all that’s going on, the industry has a very important role
to play,” said Deirdre Michie, CEO of OEUK. “What’s become clear
is that energy security is a matter of national security. We can be
part of the solution here.”
The group’s Business Outlook noted that the number of approv-
als for new oil and gas projects on the UKCS has been falling
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