NEXT 2023
New Energy X Subsurface
Bergen, Norway
October 24. – 26. 2023
ABOUT
The conference aims to enhance our understanding of the role of the subsurface in developing new energy and low-carbon systems, such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, geothermal, and offshore wind farms. By drawing upon subsurface geoscience experience, knowledge, technologies, and data from the oil and gas industry, new energy projects can be designed, monitored, and implemented cost-effectively, environmentally friendly, and driven by data and domain sciences.
FOR WHOM?
NEXT 2023 is a meeting place for the research community, tech community, new energy companies, and the subsurface community to share innovation, as one G&G community in the new energy sector. NEXT is a place where this emerging community comes together to share and increase the knowledge about subsurface challenges and opportunities within geothermal, offshore wind, CCS, and hydrogen themes.
We invite the ecosystem of traditional and new energy companies, service companies, technology providers, authorities, research, and educational institutions, working on and adjacent to the Norwegian Continental Shelf, to join the geoscience community at NEXT this October.
WHY?
The growth of new energy and storage systems will reshape our energy landscape. The industry needs a mix of innovative technologies, a new way of collaborating, novel approaches, and new interdisciplinary subsurface knowledge. Industries must work together and recognize that the subsurface is a collective asset for all energy and low-carbon systems. Rather than starting from scratch, the focus should be on leveraging and advancing existing solutions, which can lead to significant cost- and time-savings.
CALL FOR PAPERS
We are pleased to announce the call for abstracts for our upcoming conference on new energy and storage systems. The 1st edition of the NEXT conference will primarily be focusing on the subsurface component of the value chain in new energy and low-carbon systems within hydrogen, CCS, offshore wind, and geothermal.
A key enabler in the energy transition is increased multi-disciplinary subsurface understanding. The number of “New Energy Players” on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) and adjacent areas is accelerating, fostering the emergence of new ways of working and the evolution of new business models through collaboration and coordination across the entire new energy value chains.
BACKGROUND
A major energy shift is gradually unfolding on the NCS, with the recent announcement of the 4th CCS licensing round for carbon storage by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD). The Northern Lights project will offer transport and storage of CO2 as a service across borders and is expected to start commercial operations next year. Denmark and the UK have also recently announced progress in their CCS initiatives.
Offshore-wind farm areas are being evaluated on the NCS and in the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The Norwegian Government recently announced the first competitions for two offshore wind areas, the Sørlige Nordsjø II and Utsira Nord. With application deadlines in August and September this year, respectively, we can expect the first licenses to be awarded by the end of the year. Looking further out, the Norwegian Water Resources and (NPD have identified 20 additional areas on the NCS that might be suitable for offshore wind farms.
Site- and license activities, including risk identification and assessment, in addition to monitoring and drilling injection wells for CO2 storage, are activities emerging on the NCS and adjacent areas. However, every site and license is in many respects unique.
The NCS and adjacent areas serve as an excellent laboratory, also powering cross-border knowledge sharing and collaboration. There is a broad variety of sediment composition on NCS, including shallow geology and regionally and stratigraphically changes, providing new energy and storage opportunities, but can also pose risks and challenges. With more than 50 years of exploration and 25 years of storage experience on NCS, technology, and geoscience knowledge transfer play a crucial role in the new energy transition.
Norway is at the forefront of data-sharing and data access, with the whole geoscience ecosystem benefiting from the release of CCS datasets like the Smeheia and Sleipner data sets by Equinor, in addition to vast amounts of data facilitated and released by the NPD and Diskos. Well and seismic data from the NCS is uniquely rich, with complementary big data sets that hold untapped potential and are about to be utilized in technologies and subsurface workflows and evaluations tailored for the new energy systems.
The seal quality and integrity of the caprock or overburden are critical components. A more data-driven understanding of the shallow geology, near subsurface, overburden, and non-cored intervals is essential knowledge for emerging energy industries. These domains are still under-explored, as most seismic acquisitions during the past decades have targeted deeper layers. New marine seismic survey concepts, seismic acquisition, and (re)-processing are needed to illuminate shallow layers while maintaining high survey efficiency. In addition, the unique NCS digital and fast-track cuttings dataset (>700,000 samples analyzed) opens a new landscape of opportunities in our subsurface evaluations, as vast amounts of data about the overburden and non-cored intervals are made available.
TOPICS
The NEXT conference will cover a wide range of new energy digital solutions, strategies, and subsurface evaluations within new energy and low-carbon systems like hydrogen, CCS, offshore wind, and geothermal. We invite you to submit abstracts covering the following topics:
- New Energy and low-carbon strategies, business models, and innovation
- North Sea cross-border knowledge sharing. Offshore and onshore case studies and analogs
- Improved workflows and new digital solutions for next-generation energy systems
- Seabed and sub-surface challenges and implications for offshore wind development.
- North Sea as a subsurface geothermal energy engine
- Subsurface assessments and risk mitigation studies for North Sea CO2 and hydrogen storage sites
Abstract deadline: 28th August 2023
We encourage abstracts on case studies from energy companies in collaboration with technology companies or vendor companies. We also encourage academia and start-up companies to submit abstracts.