McDermott International, Ltd., Schneider Electric and io consulting have jointly announced a collaboration to advance research and design of carbon-neutral facilities for the upstream oil and natural gas market.

The three companies intend to combine their capabilities and resources to explore and develop a proof of concept based on an offshore platform reference case. The result of the collaboration will be published in a joint study on Net Zero Facilities — Upstream before the end of 2020.

The study defines a hierarchy of emissions-reduction technologies, ranked by maturity, investment and impact to enable operators to make informed decisions when prioritizing areas for emissions reduction.

The program supports a dramatic carbon footprint reduction within the production and transformation of oil and gas, which, according to the International Energy Agency, is about 15% of the entire oil and gas carbon footprint.

The companies expect the collaboration to demonstrate what is achievable with current technology, what new technologies are required and identify break-even carbon pricing to make the net zero facilities viable both now and in the future. The team will adapt this proof of concept to any geographical region and project, considering local infrastructure and environmental policies regarding carbon pricing.

The study applies a decision-quality framework to identify methods for achieving carbon neutrality including: power import and electrification; renewable micro-grids; integration with hydrogen networks; integrated energy storage; reduction of fugitive emissions; removal of flare systems; facility de-manning and access method; facility monitoring and control — remote operation; engineered offsetting methods (excluding nature-based offsetting); and digital transformation of design and operations.