Honeywell and Saipem have announced a collaboration for the product development and commercialisation of a ‘Digital Twin’ as part of Saipem’s Snamprogetti urea technology.
Honeywell Forge will develop the solution to enable customers to improve the production of urea through virtual simulation of key processes. On the other side, Saipem will be responsible for the management and technical support of the digital tool. Honeywell’s digital twin solution will also be used as a virtual model to guide engineers with actionable insights into machine performance and maintenance needs in order to optimize plant production of urea. With the Honeywell Forge solution, Saipem will be able to provide real-time response on plant operational management. Also, it will allow the company to collect data for monitoring and predictive maintenance. Furthermore, with this solution, Saipem will remain in close contact with its clients, even after plant delivery, to modernize its offering as a licensor and to collect feedback regarding plant performance.

The UK government has announced its strategy to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The Net-Zero Strategy sets out how the UK will secure 440,000 well-paid jobs and unlock near $125 billion in investment in 2030 on its path to ending its contribution to climate change by 2050. The UK Government said that this would provide certainty to businesses to support the UK in gaining a competitive edge in the latest low carbon technologies – from heat pumps to electric vehicles – and in developing thriving green industries in our industrial heartlands – from carbon capture to hydrogen, backed by new funding. UK’s Net-Zero Strategy sets out a comprehensive economy-wide plan for how British businesses and consumers will be supported in making the transition to clean energy. As part of the strategy, the new investment includes an extra $482 million to support the electrification of UK vehicles and their supply chains and another $853.5 million for targeted electric vehicle grants and infrastructure. The country is also working to kick-start the commercialization of sustainable aviation fuel made from sustainable materials such as household waste, flue gases from industry, carbon captured from the atmosphere, and excess electricity.

Norwegian oil and gas exploration and production company Vår Energi has made a discovery of oil and gas in the Rødhette exploration well in the Goliat area in the Southern Barents Sea. The well was drilled 30 km north of the Goliat field and 5 km south from the Tornerose discovery.
The exploration well proved successful with the latest preliminary estimates. Torger Rød, Vår Energi CEO has stated that the discovery is significant for the area. “With the Rødhette result, Vår Energi celebrates a sixth exploration discovery this year, as the exploration team continue a successful
2021 campaign. The licensees will now assess the discovery, as well as maturing other targets in the license and the surrounding area in order to add resources for a future tie-back to Goliat.” Rødhette was drilled in PL 901 by Scarabeo 8. The well encountered an oil & gas column of about 28 meters in the Realgrunnen subgroup within good to moderate reservoir sandstones (1882 meters below sea level). Preliminary estimates by the operator place the size of the discovery between 9 and 12 mmboe recoverable (gross). Vår Energi is the largest independent operator on the Norwegian continental shelf with ownership in more than 136 licenses and oil and gas production from 35 fields. Vår Energi is owned by Eni (69,85%) and HitecVision (30,15%).

The Minister of Ecological Transition Roberto Cingolani was called to answer important questions of the M5S on the Pitesai (Plan for the sustainable energy transition of eligible areas) during the Question Time at the Chamber, whose adoption deadline expired on 30 September. According to M5S, it is considered appropriate to simplify the approval process by considering the possibility that only existing prospecting and research activities are maintained within the areas identified as suitable, in line with the decision already taken by other European countries to stop new projects.
On that occasion, Cingolani said: “I can confirm that until the Pitesai will not be definitively approved, no new permits will be granted for research and production of hydrocarbons, as already said. Even with regard to the authorizations in force but suspended by law, these will have to wait
for the final plan”.

South Africa is Africa’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, releasing an estimated 470-million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, with coal providing the bulk of its electricity.
Geological mapping at the country’s first CCS site, where it plans to inject vast quantities of carbon dioxide deep underground, has started.
The project will link a pipeline transporting compressed carbon dioxidefrom major emitting sources, such as Secunda, directly to the identified injection site that is overlain with an “impermeable rock cap”. CGS plans to test the feasibility of injecting between 10.000 to 50.000 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year to a depth of at least 1 km. South Africa has about 150 Gt of potential storage capacity, mainly in offshore basins on the east and west coast.

Nord Stream 2 was completed last month despite years of opposition from countries including the United States, which warned that it would boost Moscow’s influence in Europe. Natural gas prices in Europe have increased more than 130% since September and are more than eight times higher than on the same month last year. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, “early completion of the certification” for Nord Stream 2 would help “cool off the current situation.” The pipeline, which runs from Russia under the Baltic Sea and into Germany, is awaiting clearance from German authorities. EU energy chief Kadri Simson said in a statement that “This price shock is an unexpected crisis at a critical juncture. The immediate priority should be to mitigate social impacts and protect vulnerable households.”

Ship’s anchor may have caused massive oil spill off the coast of Southern California. The spill originated from a pipeline running from the Port of Long Beach to an offshore oil platform known as Elly. In the days that followed, the spill has left crude along stretches of sand in Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach, killing fish and birds. “The ecological and economic damage from this oil spill has the potential to reverberate for generations,” state Sen. Dave Min said in a statement. “The legislation after the Santa Barbara damage was meant to prevent this,” he said. “It really speaks to the need to get rid of these oil rigs.”. Anchored cargo ships continually move because of shifting winds and tides and an improperly set anchor weighing 10 tons (9 metric tons) or more can drag “whatever the anchor gets fouled on,” said Steven Browne, a professor of marine transportation at California State University Maritime Academy.

Chinese oil&gas giant CNOOC Limited has a huge discovery on the Kenli 10-2 oilfield in Bohai Bay (China). According to CNOOC, the main oil-bearing formation of Kenli 10-2 oilfield is in the lower member of Neogene Minghuazhen Formation and the oil properties are conventional heavy oil. The discovery well Kenli 10-2-4 was drilled and completed at a depth of nearly 5,000 feet. The appraisal well was tested to produce approximately 569 barrels of oil per day. “The successful discovery of the Kenli 10-2 oil field marked the breakthrough in the discovery of lithological oilfield with reserve of 100 million tons in the shallow depression zone of the Bohai oilfields, demonstrated the broad prospects for exploration of lithological structures in the Bohai, and has great significance as a guide for exploration in similar basins,” General Manager of Exploration Department of CNOOC Xu Changgui said.

Energy group Saipem has signed an agreement with Saudi Aramco to examine setting up a company to do engineering, procurement and construction work in Saudi Arabia. The project is part of the Saudi Aramco’s industrial investment program (Namaat Aramco) for the economic growth and diversification in the country. The Program includes 22 memoranda of understanding in sectors such as energy and the chemicals supply chain with a series of companies including: Solvay (development of advanced non-metallic materials and the localization of the complex value chain), DHL Supply Chain Company (to assess the feasibility of setting up an industrial supply and logistics center serving the Kingdom and the Middle East), Veolia (to ascertain the commercial viability of creating a worldclass integrated waste management company, along with a strategic entity in the Kingdom), Air Liquide, Halliburton and the Public Investment Fund, Baker Hughes and the Public Investment Fund, Lind and Schlumberger and the Public Investment Fund – 3 separate, non-binding MOUs to evaluate CCS opportunities and potential partnerships. In a statement on Tuesday Saipem said any new company, set up with local partners, would work in energy and infrastructure with the aim of creating an “EPC national champion”.

Australia plans to spend approximately $3.7 billion on offshore gas exploration over the next six years. according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), this should be enough to develop 2.5GW of renewables capacity and generate about 5,000 new jobs. The IEEFA report, which was released couple of days ago, shows how “the Australian government has given the green light to oil and gas giants” to spend vast sums of money on “risky offshore exploration activities despite industry-low success rates and the global energy transition”. Milad Mousavian of IEEFA, said the Australian government has ignored warnings by the International Energy Agency that no new oil and gas projects should go-ahead in order to reach net zero by 2050. Australia surpassed Qatar as the largest LNG exporter in the world in 2019, exporting 77.5 million tonnes with around 70% supplied by offshore gas.