Apollo appoint dedicated Energy Transition Manager
Lucy describes below her journey with Apollo this far and her views and hopes for the Energy Transition moving forward.
Anyone who has spent any time with me will likely agree that I have an absolute passion for our energy industry. When I joined Apollo almost 8 years ago, I enjoyed being immersed in the world of big machinery, greenfield developments, tie-backs and bypasses, mobilising drilling units and back deck spreads. And although the market buoyancy wasn’t to last forever, one of the great things about working for Apollo is that even when things get choppy, our passion for engineering and helping our clients has made us believe that we can weather almost any storm, providing we keep our eyes on the horizon.
During my 1st downturn, we maintained perspective. We managed to grow by focussing on optimising assets and debottlenecking, and through continuing to deliver renewable energy projects including large scale wind arrays and a world first in tidal. During this time we also broke our CCUS duck, and whilst government agenda “wasn’t quite there” in 2015, it is looking like it is very likely this time around. So the storm I just mentioned is becoming perfect, and we are poised ready to support all our clients.
But we are not “green-washing” or kidding ourselves that we know everything there is to know about the new world. We have taken stock of our experience, our track record, listened to our clients and industry; and we have taken time to understand exactly what tools and people we need to be able to safeguard our client’s businesses for decades to come. Because in my mind, this is exactly what Energy Transition is about – Protecting our client’s businesses through futureproofing so that they are ready to meet the ever-changing energy demands of the consumer for a long time to come.
We are working hand in glove with our oil and gas operator clients to understand their emissions profile and reduce it through maximising new clean technology, optimising and streamlining offshore assets and digitisation. We are shining a light on future opportunities as well, by uncovering the huge CCUS potential of our depleted reservoirs which could be accessed in as little as 5 – 10 years’ time. And we are rapidly moving up the curve in terms of green and blue hydrogen production.
We are tackling big questions of our time including:
- Can our infrastructure be repurposed for Hydrogen?
- Can it be repurposed for CCUS?
- What do the economics need to say for these options to become opportunity?
- How do I power all of this?
We are also exploring the feasibility of electrification, whether this be from a single cable or from a shared grid arrangement. Investigating the merits of providing power from onshore vs the possibility of powering assets from the existing and future wind farms. You may have read in the news recently that Apollo was awarded its 100th renewable energy project, and this was no accident.
But now we are seeing a new paradigm shift, and the once neatly drawn lines between “dirty oil and gas” in the black corner, and “clean renewables” in the green corner are becoming blurred. Oil and gas operators are increasingly becoming stakeholders in wind developments and in some cases even leading the charge.
The reality is, that the Energy Transition is happening although none of us knows for sure exactly how the next decade will pan out. After all, no one accurately predicted the last one! But whatever happens, I firmly believe that the changes and repurposing of assets and infrastructure and emerging technology will all be underpinned by solid engineering. And that Apollo and the UK supply chain will be ready to meet the challenges head-on. Together, we will continue to evolve a sustainable industry for future generations whilst making a big impact on the UK climate change objectives.
And I would rather like to think that Apollo will be leading the charge.