DEPARTMENTS • ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
Apache lends support
to well pad restoration
research in Permian Basin
By powering the Askepott jackup from shore via the Martin Linge A platform,
Equinor expects to achieve a 20,000-ton reduction in CO 2 .

KCA Deutag to electrify Equinor’s Askepott jackup
KCA Deutag is set to carry out a major
project to electrify Equinor’s jackup rig,
Askepott, in Norway. The electrification
project, which will be delivered by KCA
Deutag’s Kenera business unit, will make
the Askepott rig the first in Equinor’s
portfolio to be powered from onshore
when it is completed in Q4 2024.

Askepott will receive power from high-
voltage cabling via the Martin Linge A
platform . The platform is already sup-
plied with power from shore through the
world’s longest alternating current cable
and is located 42 km west of the Oseberg
Field on the Norwegian Continental
Shelf (NCS).

Based on previous records and pre-
dicted calculations, it is anticipated the
project will result in a reduction of 20,000
tons of CO 2 per year compared with run-
ning with traditional diesel generators.

As a key part of the project, Kenera will
convert the existing mud treatment room
on Askepott to an electrical power room
and install transformers, variable fre-
quency drives and high-voltage switch
boards certified to DNV classification
requirements. Kenera will provide a turnkey solution,
including initial procurement, detailed
engineering and installation and com-
missioning, before handing the project
over to Equinor and KCA Deutag’s team
in Norway for the day-to-day operations
onboard Askepott.

In a previous energy optimization
project, Kenera had deployed CO 2 and
nitrogen oxides reduction technologies
on the Askepott rig, as well as Equinor’s
Askeladden rig .

Northern Lights collaboration targets CCS digitalization
10 Apache Corp is partnering with the
Borderlands Research Institute (BRI)
at Sul Ross State University in Alpine,
Texas, to launch a well pad restoration
research project. Researchers at BRI and
Texas Native Seeds, a project of the Caesar
Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute at
Texas A&M Kingsville, will investigate
methods to improve habitat restoration
efforts in the Permian Basin . The goal is
to publish a science-backed, best practices
reclamation document to be shared with
other Permian operators.

The project will explore how changes
in the industry’s collective approach to
restoring end-of-service well pads can
have broader benefits to local biodiversity
and reunite fragmented habitats.

Typically, at the end of a well’s service
life, the well is plugged and the pad is
reseeded and allowed to gradually return
to a natural condition. This project looks to
accelerate a more vibrant return to nature
by considering alternative soil prepara-
tion techniques, adding biochar to improve
soil fertility, and incorporating undesirable
scrub brush as a vegetative cover to hold
soil moisture and discourage grassland
animals from foraging on the seeds before
they germinate.

Additionally, the project will measure
increases in soil carbon to passively
sequester CO 2 in healthy desert soils and
will support Sul Ross State University stu-
dent research through BRI.

ADNOC, Santos to explore
global CCS platform
ADNOC and Santos have signed a stra-
tegic collaboration agreement (SCA) that
SLB and the Northern Lights Joint
ital platform, which was deployed to
outlines a pathway toward the potential
Venture have signed an agreement to
streamline the subsurface workflows of
development of a joint global carbon man-
work with Microsoft to optimize integrat-
Northern Lights in 2022.

agement platform that could support the
ed cloud-based workflows for Northern
Microsoft will deploy and extend its
Lights operations. The collaboration
Azure platform to ensure scalable cloud
aims to contribute to the development of
services that support Northern Lights’
Additionally, the SCA encompasses the
scalable and cost-efficient digital solu-
business and the SLB digital CCS work-
advancement of critical carbon capture
tions for the emerging carbon capture
flows. SLB and Microsoft are also collab-
and storage (CCS) technologies and the
and storage (CCS) industry.

orating to develop an Azure-compliant
exploration of a CO 2 shipping and trans-
In the initial phases , SLB will extend
open-source data platform that will
portation infrastructure network to enable
the digital CCS workflows and numeri-
serve as the digital infrastructure for
heavy-emitting sectors capture, ship and
cal simulation systems on its Delfi dig-
Northern Lights.

permanently store CO 2 .

decarbonization journey of customers
throughout the Asia Pacific.

JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2024 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R