OilVoice Interview With Per Wiggo Richardsen from DNV About the Arctic

1. The DNV report puts a lot of emphasis on technology upgrade to tap into more complex structures. Is that one solution the company is putting forward to offset the end of cheap oil?

The technology outlook from DNV is our way of looking in to the future, our way of predicting what's going to happen. As a competence centre within both the oil and gas industry and the shipping business we have done this for a while. Our last technology outlook was back in 2007 when we looked forward to 2015 and this time, in 2011, we are looking forward to 2020.

And yes, we do think that there are a lot of new materials, a lot of new types of equipment and new types of construction to be used. Take for example the pipes we will be using in nine years time. I think that the new material for them ought to be able to be used in cold areas. We'll need acceptable toughness properties and in particular new high strength steels for preventing brittle fractures.

Another example is the coating, the painting needs to be used with insulation corrosion protection etc.

We have already seen development in the direction of new materials, new ways of protecting the materials, and we are sure this will continue.

2. DNV predicts a new thrust in Arctic exploration. Is that viable considering companies like Cairn have recently been unsuccessful in finding oil in the region? And what about the environmental awareness campaigns protesting against Arctic exploration?

We do believe that the area of the easy available oil is coming to an end. There have been some big discoveries this year, in particular in the North Sea. But if you look at what has happened over the past years the frequency of new discoveries in the more easy available areas has been less and less.

And based on that, based on the predictions that we can see from professors, from people working with seismic and from people working with geologics, we can see that there might be, and I emphasise might be because no one knows, huge reserves in the arctic area.

We have seen that more exploration has taken place in these areas in the last years and we predict that there is more exploration to come. But for that to happen we need to ensure that we have a safe and good way of operating, because it's a sensitive area when it comes to the environment.

I myself grew up in northernmost Norway, which is above the Arctic circle, and I know a bit about nature and how it can recover based on, for example, an oil spill. And it takes much more time to recover in an area like the arctic compared to an area where you have a higher average temperature both on land and in the water.

3. The report also predicts widespread use of the controversial hydraulic fracturing technique to explore unconventional gas. What are your comments on that?

I think to be able to develop this type of new resource - the shale gas - we need to drill a lot of horizontal wells. That's the whole clue to be able to develop this area.

I think the most controversial part of this project is that we need a lot of fresh water to be pumped down in to the same area. And in some parts of the globe we know that fresh water is a very restricted resource so that's a major challenge, how to balance the need for energy compared to the need for fresh water.