Add Energy/AGR have co-authored several well integrity manuals, including the world-renowned NORSOK D-010 Well Integrity Standard and can provide expert knowledge and insights into the current oil and gas economy. In this article, we discusses the challenges that the oil and gas industry faced as a whole throughout 2021, the direction that we believe green energy will take in future years and the importance of properly training your workforce, now more than ever.
2021 reflection:
How would we describe the past year ?
2021 had highs and lows – sometimes we felt that we were on top of everything and then other times external circumstances made us feel that we were slipping. The pandemic threw everything up in the air, causing a reduction in activity and making it difficult to maintain business turnover. The drop in oil prices also caused a lot of uncertainty within the industry, making clients reluctant to invest in large projects.
Despite any setbacks we may have faced in 2021, we have become more confident in our digitalization through remote working, which has in turn helped with our company’s ability to reach a global market and work more closely with our global clients.
What do you believe were the biggest challenges faced over the course of 2021?
The past year has brought numerous challenges for both Add Energy and the industry as a whole. For the oil and gas industry, the rhetoric has become increasingly negative due to the global shift towards green energy. While this has created less appetite for investments into oil and gas projects, the world still needs energy and there isn’t a magic switch that will flip everything to relying solely on renewables. This is a gradual transition that can use the resources and expertise of the oil and gas industry to its advantage.
We have also seen another year of online meetings, conferences, and training reduce the opportunity for real human connections. While video calls and webinars have allowed us to communicate globally from the comfort and safety of our own homes, there is no denying that physical meetings bring another dimension to team meetings, which can be important for developing business relationships.
2022 outlook:
What opportunities do you think Add Energy will have in 2022?
While there is a lot of promising talk and increasing optimism around decarbonization, the progress still seems to be relatively slow due to a lack of government funds to get the ball rolling towards geothermal wells and C02 projects.
“Following the UN Climate Change Conference at the end of 2021, I do believe that in 2022 we will begin to see a bigger push towards renewables and, as the energy industry moves through this gradual transition into an increasingly green sector, we hope to see more decarbonization projects arise. This will provide exciting opportunities for Add Energy as we can apply and adapt our existing drilling and wells experience and expertise to support carbon capture and storage and Geothermal well projects.
“As we went into the second year of the pandemic in 2021, we unfortunately saw many companies, including ourselves, go through redundancy processes. As difficult as this period was, opportunities have arisen in the form of training and consultancy requirements as organizations are having to do more with fewer people.
“We have developed new e-learning courses through our own training platform, The ABL Training, and have big plans to grow this resource in 2022, to support our clients across the globe in developing their workforce. After two years of remote working, we are fully set up to go into 2022 providing remote, in-person, and hybrid training to a high quality to ensure personnel are efficiently trained. This will be beneficial as companies begin recruiting again throughout 2022, and will also help ensure that their current workers are fully up to date with their knowledge.