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SPE Distinguished Lecturer Webinar – Rigs as Reefs: Re-imagining Our Energy Past as our Eco-Friendly Future

November 9, 2022 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

SPE WA is proud to present the details of the November SPE Distinguished Lecturer Webinar.


About the Presentation

Increasingly, the world’s offshore oil and gas platforms are transitioning into aging relics, leftover designs from an era in hot pursuit of developing and extracting the world’s offshore oil reserves, with little thought given to their eventual removal. However, as the global economy has begun to shift away from traditional energy resources (i.e., oil and gas) towards renewables (i.e., wind, wave, and solar energy), the removal of many offshore structures has become inevitable, and the technical, economic, and environmental implications associated with their decommissioning must now be addressed. Many of these platforms are home to some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet, making decommissioning via complete removal and onshore disposal environmentally detrimental, and needlessly expensive. Repurposing an object, which was once environmentally taxing, into something sustainable and environmentally friendly is inherently fresh, and perhaps most critically, timely. This lecture will shed light on how scientists, operators and regulators are beginning to think creatively about our ocean resources, and radically changing the way society views ocean conservation. By examining several case studies, ranging from traditional fixed platforms to floating facilities to subsea infrastructure in the super deep sea, this lecture will demonstrate the ecological, social, and economic benefits of repurposing oil and gas infrastructure as marine habitats. Ultimately, this lecture will demonstrate to members how implementing Rigs to Reef programs globally provides not only a viable alternative to traditional decommissioning but also a replicable, scalable and significantly more commercially viable solution which can catalyze sustainable ocean resource development.


About the Speaker – Emily Hazelwood

Emily is a marine conservation biologist and co-founder of Blue Latitudes, a women-owned marine environmental consulting firm, where she works to unite science, policy, and innovative technology to solve the complex ecological challenges associated with re-purposing offshore oil and gas platforms as artificial reefs through the Rigs to Reefs program. She has a B.A. in Environmental Science from Connecticut College and an M.A.S in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In 2018, Emily was recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 (entrepreneurs) list for her work developing sustainable, creative, and cost-effective solutions for the offshore energy industry.


Webinar Registration

Date:              Tuesday, 1st of November 2022

Time:              07:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Details

Date:
November 9, 2022
Time:
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Event Category:
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