Topic: The role of the oil and gas sector in decarbonisation

Speaker: Prof Andreas Busch, Heriot-Watt University

Abstract: Starting from the perspective of the historical growth in energy demand during the industrial and petroleum ages ~1800 to 2021, we note that provision of energy and industrial activity in human society are closely coupled. Over the last 100 years, oil and gas companies have come to dominate the energy sector. Their business model is essentially to produce subsurface hydrocarbons to meet the global demand for energy and for a wide range of industrial activities, with global oil production reaching about 100 million barrels per day in 2020. As we now enter the age of low-carbon energy, it is natural to ask who will dominate the energy sector and how might it work?

A modified oil and gas energy sector is most likely to play a significant role for several fundamental reasons:
         1. The energy sector will still require the ability to develop large projects (with the associated investment, construction, operation and distribution work streams) in both the renewable energy sectors and in the decarbonised fossil-fuel sectors;
         2. Decarbonisation will fundamentally require CO2 disposal at industrial scales, using the same rock formations exploited for oil and gas resources;
         3. Gigatonne-scale geological storage of CO2, along with seasonal storage of energy and gas, will require the well technologies and subsurface resource management tools which have been developed in the oil and gas sector.

Event Timing: Tuesday 2nd March 2021 at 12 pm GMT (1pm WAT)