Oil and gas from the North Sea has powered Europe for decades. The North Sea is now providing a diverse mix of energy solutions with ambitious plans for offshore wind, the scale up of carbon storage, and the potential for hydrogen generation and distribution. Europe’s energy systems have been hit by turmoil following the Ukraine war.

In this SPE Live, you will hear perspectives from across Europe and the different approaches to how countries are managing their respective journeys to net zero emissions. Some countries continue to encourage investment in oil and gas to drive the economy and fund a broader energy transition, others have taken a different path seeking to accelerate renewable energy coupled with policy that removes incentives for oil and gas development.

What is the future for the North Sea as Europe’s energy mix evolves? How do we best use this shared resource?

This lively conversation will be continued at SPE Offshore Europe in Aberdeen on 2-5 September 2025.

Moderator: Natalie Coupar, Communications and Marketing Director, OEUK

Guests:

SPE Offshore Europe

How relevant is well intervention in today’s O&G landscape? Very much, as the need from operators to maximize ROI while maintaining cost control relies on mature asset management, production increases. Well Intervention is a fundamental technical discipline, which enables Operators to regain access to reserves and restore/increase production faster than drilling. The SPE/ICoTA conference is the cornerstone of the Well Intervention Technical Community, where companies share their newest technologies, developments, and achievements, contributing to the technical excellence and knowledge sharing amongst peers.

Moderated by Carlos Torres, SPE North America Regional Director. Founder and Owner at Royal Oaks Energy Services

Speakers:

SPE/ICoTA Well Intervention Conference and Exhibition

Join us for an exclusive fireside chat with Erik Kirkemo, Senior Vice President of Drilling & Well at Equinor and Conference Chair for the upcoming SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference and Exhibition. We will explore the extraordinary shifts reshaping the drilling landscape—from harnessing advanced automation and digital innovation to pursuing net-zero targets. Erik will share insights on balancing short-term demands with long-term strategic planning, adapting to evolving regulations, and leveraging collaboration to drive meaningful change. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain fresh perspectives on what’s truly shaping the future of drilling.

Moderated by Robin Macmillan, SPE Technical Director for Drilling

Speakers: Erik Kirkemo, Senior Vice President of Drilling and Well, Equinor. Conference Chair for the 2025 SPE/IADC International Drilling Conference & Exhibition

In this SPE Live, we explore the evolution of safety in O&G, maritime, and civil aviation industries under a human factors approach, discussing how the evolution from human error to system resilience reshaped workplace practices and safety management. Drawing insights from incidents and normal work, we illustrate how human competencies, such as adaptive variability, non-technical skills, and team dynamics, are the solution, not the problem, to deal with the emergent challenges in high-risk environments as the complex sociotechnical system of these industry's workplaces.

Moderated by Sarah Acton, Human Factors Engineer at Ascend Performance Materials

Speakers:

We are excited to host two 2024 Energy Influencers selected by The Way Ahead for outstanding technical, entrepreneurial, and service contributions by young professionals. In this SPE Live, we discuss how technology innovation is enabling carbon capture, how industry is scaling-up these technologies in large projects globally, and how our energy sector is collaborating and working across industries to advance.

Our guests have years of experience championing new technologies and are ready to share their perspectives and answer your questions.

Moderated by Natan Battisti, Portfolio Risk & Decision Quality Lead at Harbour Energy

Speakers:

We are excited to host three 2024 Energy Influencers selected by The Way Ahead for outstanding technical, entrepreneurial, and service contributions by young professionals. In this SPE Live, we talk about the meaning and impact of being a leader, leadership skills, challenges face as young leaders and how to overcome them.

Our guests have become leaders and are ready to share their perspectives and answer your questions.

Moderated by Hitisha Dadlani, Reservoir engineer at ONGC

Speakers:

*Ravana Karimova, Completion and Intervention Engineer at bp

Stringent regulations to protect the environment have generated an increased demand for oilfield produced water treatment for recycling and reuse, creating significant challenges to existing treatment technologies. Membranes technologies, even though they have sparsely been used in the oil and gas industry, offer promising solutions.

During this SPE Live, we are going to discuss innovations on membrane materials, coatings and hydraulics. Field examples to illustrate applications of advanced membrane technology to treat produced water will be shared.

Moderated by Patricia E. Carreras, General Manager at Blue Moon Strategies

Speakers:

Lithium is an essential building block of the low-carbon economy, particularly for energy storage and electric vehicles. Due to its unique properties and lack of alternatives, the global demand for lithium is predicted to rise over 40 times by 2040. To meet this demand, lithium mining and refining need to scale in tandem. Current methods of extraction and processing are slow and resource intensive. Brine is pumped to the surface and into ponds where solar evaporation is used to concentrate the lithium. This process can take months or years to complete, requires large amounts of land and water, causes air and water pollution, and has a relatively low recovery efficiency.

New direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies, on other hand, are emerging which extract lithium from produced oil and gas water or saturated brines. There are several categories of DLE technologies including sorbents, electrochemical, membrane and ion exchange technologies. Dozens of companies are working in these areas and several of them are starting to reach the commercial markets.

Speaker: Marshall Carolus, Vice President at INTEK Inc.

Moderated by: Elena Melchert, President at Energy Consulting LLC

Monitoring critical infrastructure is a crucial aspect of maritime security. It involves integrating various sensor technologies to create a comprehensive understanding of the environment. This includes data from static sensors like OptoDAS, radar, AIS, sonar, and CCTV and mobile sources such as unmanned systems.

This SPE Live focuses on integrating these diverse data sources into one comprehensive understanding of the environment.

* Speakers:

* Moderated by Ed Tovar, CEO at InTechSys, LLC

Energy Security underlines oil and gas dominant role in the foreseeable future. However, 85% of CO2 emissions are related to the production or consumption of energy. Hence the important dual role of the O&G community is to safeguard the energy supply while advancing us toward Net-Zero. Scyller Borglum talks with Girish Nadkarni to unpack the complexities of whether we are making sufficient progress, the role of Climate Tech investments, do we need to further democratize Discovery, Development, and Deployment, the role of AI and the O&G sector’s leadership in our march to Net-Zero.

Girish Nadkarni is a veteran thought leader in corporate venture investing. He retired as the CEO of TotalEnergies Ventures in 2022. Among many advisory roles, he serves OGCI Climate Investments, Clean Energy Ventures, and the Stanford High Impact Technology Fund.

Scyller Borglum is the Vice President for WSP USA’s Underground Storage Market in the Energy National Business Line. She is the Deputy Project Manager for the Advanced Clean Energy Storage cavern development in Delta, UT, the first-ever utility-scale hydrogen production and storage facility in the world.

Join them as they answer live questions!

• Speaker: Girish Nadkarni, Climate Tech Investor, Venture Advisor, and Board Member