HOW TO KEEP PEOPLE ON YOUR PAYROLL WHEN YOUR ASSETS HAVE ALL CEASED PRODUCTION?
That’s the question one particular operator faces in the North Sea. And they have found a great solution to this. I heard the company allows all employees to spend £5,000 a year on training in order to prepare for the next step in their careers as soon as the decommissioning process has been completed. And it seemingly helps; people have embarked on courses, and one person allegedly said: “People switch jobs all the time; I don’t see a reason why I would not want to work for a company even when I know it will cease operating in 6 years, especially when the conditions are good.”
IF THE PAYBACK TIME OF NEW TECHNOLOGY IS TOO LONG, YOU’VE GOT A PROBLEM
During a recent evening lecture, someone presented a new technology to decrease the water cut of produced oil. He showed graphs from a real project to back up the technology, clearly illustrating its potential. However, the person next to me was adamant when he said, “It will be hard to find an operator willing to trial this.” Why? Because it is too expensive, and there is too much time between implementation and achieving results. It is a stark reminder of ALL aspects that need to be considered when marketing something new.
LACK OF RIGOR
“Some companies portray themselves as frontrunners in the Carbon Storage space”, said Nick Richardson from the North Sea Transition Authority during last year’s CCS4G Conference in London, “but when we as the regulator read through their applications for CO2 storage licences, we do not see the technical rigor that is required to convince us of taking this seriously”. It shows the discrepancy between shouting from the rooftop and the nitty gritty that only some people get to see.
A LOWER SUCCESS RATE THAN DRILLING FOR OIL
At first glance, based on the notion that water is much more ubiquitous in the subsurface than hydrocarbons, you would say that drilling a geothermal well has a higher success rate than drilling for oil. That is not the case, however. Someone knowledgeable told me that the success rate for geothermal wells in Kenya used to be even lower than for hydrocarbon exploration wells. Why? Because of the fracture networks that are required to sustain flow. And these fracture networks are often below seismic resolution, which explains why it is so challenging to drill a successful well.
