One of the largest charterers in the world, Equinor is looking to OSV owners to optimise logistics, install batteries and collaborate on new technologies to lower emissions
Collaboration with OSV owners will be vital to advancing Equinor’s decarbonisation ambitions, says an executive responsible for chartering tonnage for the oil giant.
Equinor is “working closely with the maritime industry on technology development and communicating what we think will be required in the future,” says the company’s manager for marine operations, logistics and emergency response, Morten Sundt.
Co-ordinating with Equinor’s commercial department, Mr Sundt’s department ensures that Equinor has enough OSVs and other types of shipping assets on charter to cover its requirements. Most of the OSVs Equinor has on charter operate in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. While this number varies from day to day, Equinor had fixed 46 OSVs as of mid-February. Overall, Equinor’s global chartered fleet incorporates about 150 vessels, including anchor handlers, platform supply vessels (PSVs), standby and rescue vessels, accommodation vessels, service operations vessels and tankers.
PSVs are a significant contributor to the total CO2 emissions emitted by the Norwegian maritime sector. PSVs account for 17.3% of all of the country’s domestic shipping emissions, according to Norwegian Government data. Some 358 PSVs operate in the Norwegian offshore market, producing about 827 kilotons of CO2 emissions. The offshore vessel sector as a whole produces 1,096 kilotons of CO2 emissions annually.
Equinor joined with some of the world’s largest charters as a signatory to the Sea Cargo Charter, which provides a framework for reporting emissions related to shipping. The idea is to provide standardisation and transparency in reporting the emissions related to chartered tonnage, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from shipping by 50% by 2050 as compared with 2008.
Batteries, please
Equinor’s approach to reducing emissions from its chartered OSV fleet is multi-faceted, but it starts with optimising logistics, explains Mr Sundt, because “the sailing you don’t perform is the most environmentally friendly.”
One of the things Equinor has communicated to the OSV market is the need to install batteries. It has been including batteries as a requirement in its tenders. Mr Sundt said tenders included the requirement “even when we were fairly sure that there weren’t any vessels with batteries available.” The reason for this was simple, he explains: “We wanted to send the signal that this is something we’re looking for.”
“We’ve harvested all of the low-hanging fruit. Now we need to look into technology to take us further”
An early adopter of the use of LNG as a fuel in PSVs, Equinor has been transitioning towards chartering OSVs with batteries and with shore-power connection systems installed. Shore-power connection systems allow vessels to recharge with renewable power at supply bases. Norway relies predominantly on hydroelectric power to produce its electricity, making it among the cleanest and most inexpensive in Europe.
Additional bonuses with batteries, says Mr Sundt, include a reduction in the running time of the generators when at base, lower maintenance, and being quiet – a real benefit for the crew having to conduct maintenance in the engineroom.
Crew vital to decarbonisation
Mr Sundt says the role of crew is key to saving energy and fuel: “If you have an engaged crew onboard the vessel, that makes a significant difference.”
As an example, he cites fuel-saving incentive agreements with shipowners. “If we go below a baseline, then we share the savings, but if we go above, then we share the increased cost,” he says. In those cases where there are savings, Mr Sundt says Equinor asks vessel owners to share some of the incentive with the crew, “so they actually see an effect of that saving.”
Crew engagement, notes Mr Sundt, also plays a vital role in the success of new technologies, such as battery installations on OSVs. “We’ve installed batteries on all PSVs on long-term charter (12 months or more) with us,” he says. “When that battery comes on board, you need to have a researcher mentality to see how you can optimise the vessel with the additional power source.”
Vessel flexibility is also valued by Equinor, says Mr Sundt, noting it has under charter standby and rescue vessels that can be used to launch and recover remotely operated vehicles for IMR work and PSVs that can be mobilised for light seismic work.
“We should be able to provide long-term contracts for good solutions”
“We can use our chartered OSV fleet to provide a value add to the rest of the company,” says Mr Sundt. But greater challenges lie ahead, both for Equinor and the OSV fleet.
“We’ve harvested all of the low-hanging fruit. Now we need to look into technology to take us further,” says Mr Sundt. “But,” he adds, “I’ve always enjoyed how the industry has responded to challenges and how the industry itself has driven technology, development and innovation. If you have that collaboration it is really important that we should be able to provide long-term contracts for good solutions.”
This is the case for Viking Energy, which is undergoing a retrofit as the world’s first ammonia-powered fuel-cell OSV, as part of the ShipFC Project. Equinor awarded a five-year charter with options to Eidesvik for the PSV.
Mr Sundt says Equinor is looking to efforts such as the EU-backed ShipFC Project to try to determine the fuels of the future. Viking Energy — the first LNG-powered OSV chartered by Equinor — will be retrofitted with a 2 MW ammonia fuel cell, allowing it to operate in 2024 solely on carbon-free fuel for up to 3,000 hours annually. The project will demonstrate that long-range, zero-emission voyages with high power on large ships is possible.
The goal is also to ensure that a large fuel cell can deliver total electric power to shipboard systems safely and effectively. A significant part of the project will be the scale up of a 100-kw fuel cell to 2 MW. Fuel-cell developer Prototech, ammonia gas supply provider Wärtsilä, NCE Maritime Cleantech and Yara are among the 14 members of a consortium backing the effort.
“I’ve always said, we should be more than just the transactional buyer of marine services; we should be more of an integrated part of the maritime industry,” concludes Mr Sundt.
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