We have in previous newsletters introduced you to our Day 1 keynote speakers and selected panel session participants. Day 1 showcase a stellar line up primed to set out for us the strategic picture – the new energy landscape we find ourselves in today.
Today we are proud to present three of our Day 2 keynote speakers. They are set to take us on a deep dive into what that new landscape means for us; from a regulatory, operator and supply chain perspective.
Within Norway, and globally, recent discoveries are expected to lead to a new pipeline of subsea tieback projects. But how can subsea projects add value to society? What are the challenges to achieving low-cost and low-carbon field developments? And how can the supply chain also play a role in helping to grow and advance the renewables industry?
Our Day 2 opening keynote speaker began her career in subsea and it’s still a focus, even now as Director General of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). In fact, Ingrid Sølvberg will set out for us how subsea technology can be an enabler for industrial development and value creation.
Ingrid Sølvberg
Ingrid has a very solid foundation and decades’ worth of experience to lean on in this area. She is a Civil Engineer in marine technology, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and worked as a subsea engineer in Statoil before taking up her first management position in 2004. She’s been director for platform technology and marine surveys and HSE director for midstream and downstream activity in Equinor, as well as commercial manager at Centrica. She joined the NPD in 2013, as Director for the Norwegian Sea and the Barents Sea, before becoming Director General in early 2020.
Stein Olav Drange
Stein Olav Drange, Vice President, Research and Technology, Facility Technology, at Equinor, will then take us through the challenges of building low-cost, low-carbon field developments. It’s a wide scope, involving extending the lifetime of existing infrastucture, to allow for a new wave of subsea tiebacks, while also making new tiebacks lower cost and lower emission.
He will not go without focusing on technology, of course, and a key theme will be digitalisation and automation. These are areas that are likely to dominate offshore technology for the forseeable future, but technology enablers also need to be in place to make them happen, from all-electric systems to power from shore and from maintenance free pumps to seal-less compressors, he says.
Ragnhild Katteland
From the supply chain, we will then hear from Ragnhild Katteland, EVP, Subsea & Land Systems Business Group at Nexans, about how it’s possible for oil and gas technology to cross over to renewables, which is also one of our technical session themes.
With a track record of reshaping and growing its technology offering to meet new demands and its own carbon neutrality target, Nexans is well placed to offer the supply chain perspective here. Nexans has been on that journey, from power cables to umbilicals containing power, chemicals and communications and to being a first mover in offshore wind and floating offshore wind power cables.
“There’s work we need to do across all areas to succeed,” says Ragnhild. “We have to take one step at a time, start where we see we can bring the biggest benefits then move forward.”
And that is not all. We have three more Day 2 keynote speakers to tell you about – as well as our Day 2 panel session moderators and our deep and wide-ranging technical sessions. Stay tuned – and don’t forget to register.
Read the full UTC program here. UTC 2021 is live through June 16-17.
UTC is co-organised by the Underwater Technology Foundation (UTF) and GCE Ocean Technology, supported by the City of Bergen. To register, visit our registration page.
