Understanding Potential Climate Variability Impacts on the Offshore Energy Industry

Abstract:

Climate variability may have important implications for the offshore energy industry. Scenarios of increased storm activity and changes in sea level could require the retrofit of existing offshore platforms and coastal infrastructure, the decommissioning of facilities for which upgrade or relocation is not economically viable, and the development of new methods and equipment which are removed from or less sensitive to environmental loads. Over the past years the energy industry has been actively involved in collaborative research efforts with government and academia to identify the potential changes in the offshore operating environment, and corresponding risk implications. This presentation will review several of these efforts, and for several of the hypothetical climate variation scenarios, review the potential impacts on and possible mitigations for offshore and coastal energy infrastructure and operations.