Oil and gas firm Neptune Energy has created ‘digital twins’ of two of its platforms located in the Dutch North Sea that will serve in the company’s aim to repurpose some of its facilities for carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Yesterday, the company announced its new digital twins will help speed up work schedules and cut costs, as well as environmental impacts, by allowing engineers to work onshore.
Furthermore, the Neptune Energy digital twins will also greatly contribute to the planning of the company’s large carbon capture and storage project in the L10 area.
In charge of developing the digitized versions of the L10-A complex’s drilling and production platforms is 3D technology specialist Eserv.
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm will be creating five digital twins of Neptune’s platforms in the UK, Norway, as well as other parts of the Netherlands.
The aim of the undertaking is to allow engineers and integrity specialists to work from onshore locations, which, in turn, is expected to boost efficiency and slash carbon emissions from offshore travel.
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In addition, the digital twins will also enable the company to expand their use beyond traditional E&P activities by helping advance the repurposing of existing facilities into large-scale CCS projects.
Finally, a digital twin of the Cygnus platform in the UK was also used in a study aimed at researching methane emissions by aiding the creation of advanced flight plans for drone-based surveys.
If successful, the whole initiative may see the L10 area CCS project become the largest of its kind in the entire Dutch North Sea, as depleted gas fields in the neighboring areas have the capacity to store over half of the carbon dioxide volumes targeted by Dutch industry.
