Written evidence submitted by OPITO (HCC0022)

Scottish Affairs Committee H2 & CCS Submission

Background to OPITO

OPITO is the global, not-for-profit safety and skills organisation for the energy industry. Up to 375,000 people are trained to OPITO Standards every year, across 50 countries, through more than 230 accredited training centres.

OPITO works to develop a safe and skilled workforce by driving global standards and qualifications, creating workforce development solutions and leading dialogue with industries and governments. With operations centres in four regions - UK and Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas - OPITO is driving safety and competence improvements to benefit the industry and providing career pathways and training opportunities for the current workforce and the next generation.

OPITO’s Work on the North Sea Transition Deal

The North Sea Transition Deal, which was announced in March 2021, supports the industry’s transition to clean, green energy and seeks to ensure a secure future for skilled oil and gas workers and the supply chain. The Deal document outlines several crucial steps needed to ensure that industry can retain and attract talent within oil and gas, as well as other low carbon technologies, and how it will support the workforce to transition between sectors.

Building on a 50-year heritage, OPITO is proud to be leading the development of an integrated people and skills plan to support the UK Government’s North Sea Transition Deal rollout, and to assist with the fluid movement of expertise across the energy sector. The Deal sets out a pathway for the UK’s offshore oil and gas sector and government to work together to build, deliver, and maintain the skills and new infrastructure required to fulfil agreed greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.

The People and Skills Plan will be critical in supporting this transition and diversification strategy; reskilling the workforce, enabling the transfer of people and skills across the sector, and inspiring the next generation are all essential to deliver a sustainable, net zero energy future.

OPITO’s Work in Hydrogen and CCUS:

OPITO has signed a collaborative agreement to work with carbon capture and hydrogen development company ‘Storegga’ who are the lead partner in ‘The Scottish Cluster’. This presents a valuable opportunity for OPITO to align the work of the NSTD with a major decarbonisation project and help provide a road map for skills development. OPITO has hosted workshops with Storegga in Q1 2022 to determine the applicability of OPITO’s existing Standards to hydrogen and CCUS environments, as well as develop a better understanding of the skills gaps that exist in the sector. Although the project is currently on the Governments reserve list, the cluster continues to engage with Government to progress its development and planning, and the project will play a major role in achieving the UK’s net zero targets.

OPITO are also about to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The PowerHouse, a research centre dedicated to developing floating offshore wind and green hydrogen technologies as part of Opportunity Cromarty Firth, in Q1 2022. OPITO will conduct workshops with the PowerHouse, and their members (including ORE Catapult, Aker Solutions, ESP, Skills Development Scotland, Robert Gordon University), to review existing OPITO Standards, and understand their applicability to the offshore floating wind and hydrogen sectors.

Current H2 & CCS Project Landscape

Several critical H2 and CCUS projects are currently underway that have direct benefits and implications to Scotland. These include those being conducted by Storegga, which is currently undertaking two projects relating to the research, development, and implementation of hydrogen as a renewable energy source for heat. The projects are funded and supported by industry partners (Harbour Energy, Shell and TotalEnergies), the UK and Scottish Governments and the European Union.

• Acorn CCS – This is a carbon capture and storage project which aims to utilise technologies used to prevent CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This project is due to be undertaken at St. Fergus power station, which is responsible for supplying 35% of all gas related power to the UK. CO2 emissions are to be captured, transported using the Goldeneye Pipeline and stored under the seabed.

• Acorn Hydrogen – This project aims to take North Sea natural gas and reform it into clean burning hydrogen. CO2 produced during this process would also be captured and safely stored, utilising the work being done in conjunction with the Acorn CCS project. The first Acorn Hydrogen plant is expected to be online by 2025, with the project aiming to utilise the hydrogen generated to undertake hydrogen blending. This would increase the amount of hydrogen in the existing gas supply from 0.1% to 2%, reducing carbon emissions by 400,000 tonnes per year. The project aims to scale this up to a 20% hydrogen blend over time, without affecting the consumer or their appliances.

Dolphyn - Awarded with a £3.12M contract, Dolphyn is led by Environmental Resources Management (ERM). The support will be used to design a 2MW prototype technology that combines offshore wind power with seawater to produce “green” hydrogen fuel, using renewable sources that can be piped back to shore. Preliminary designs include a 10MW floating offshore wind turbine, combined with a water treatment unit and electrolysers for localised hydrogen production.

HySpirits II -This project will investigate the feasibility of green hydrogen heating as a clean fuel solution for decarbonisation in the distilling sector. The project builds on the first HySpirits project completed last year by broadening the investigation, assessing four different technology pathways to facilitate green hydrogen fuel-switching in the distilling sector. The technologies to be assessed within the project include thermal fluid technology, steam technology, direct burn technology and dual fuel technology. Following assessment, the optimal technology pathway will be selected and used by the consortium to design a demonstration project to be considered for Phase 2 funding to prove the solution in a real-world context.

HyDIME (Hydrogen Diesel Injection in a Marine Environment) - HyDIME is focussed on the use of hydrogen as a fuel in marine transport and will see the design and integration of a hydrogen/diesel dual-fuel conversion system on a commercial ferry operating between Kirkwall and Shapinsay. The project will also gain the necessary marine licences and regulatory approvals for hydrogen to be used as a fuel in a marine environment which will have a significant impact on future hydrogen marine projects across the rest of the UK. Funded by Innovate UK.

H100 Fife - Led by gas network operator, SGN, H100 Fife aims to use the electricity generated by the 7MW Levenmouth demonstration offshore wind turbine to produce 100% green hydrogen. This will bring carbon-free heating and cooking to around 300 homes from the end of 2022. The project will provide compelling evidence of hydrogen’s performance in a real-world domestic setting as a zero-carbon energy source, as the Scottish and UK Governments look to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2045 and 2050 respectively. The project will be the first of its kind to use a direct clean power supply to produce hydrogen for domestic heating, putting Scotland at the forefront of the green energy revolution.

The size and scale of the projects annotated above demonstrates the commitment to driving forward the goal of net-zero on a fundamental socio-economic level, and OPITO aims to use its extensive heritage in keeping energy-sector workforces safe and skilled to contribute in a positive way to the industry’s evolution.

Response to Request for Written Submissions to the Scottish Affairs Committee H2 and CCS Inquiry

Within OPITO’s response, two key questions posed by the Scottish Affairs Committee will be addressed:

-          What role should the oil and gas industry play in achieving a “just transition” to blue and green hydrogen in Scotland?

-          What training is required to build a hydrogen-ready workforce in Scotland? What is the long-term sustainability of the Scottish workforce for hydrogen power?

Blue and green hydrogen will, undoubtedly, play a large role in the movement towards net-zero and the oil and gas industry will play a critical role in ensuring this transition is realised. Many skilled and qualified personnel are employed within the oil and gas sector and parallels are often drawn between those operating in an offshore oil and gas environment, and those operating in a hydrogen environment; both are high-risk and high hazard. and require robust training and competence assessment to ensure the workforce are kept safe. Established training and safety frameworks have been embedded in oil and gas operations for many years, and OPITO has a 50-year heritage in ensuring these they remain fit-for-purpose as technologies change and modernise.

There is an opportunity to create a multi-skilled workforce, utilising the existing expertise within the oil and gas sector. OPITO is already leading on, as part of the North Sea Transition Deal, a ‘Common Training Standards’ framework that aims to identify commonalities between various energy industry safety training standards. The project will deliver a comprehensive cross-section of disparate elements as well as a roadmap for how these can be addressed to ensure the appropriate skills are maintained.

OPITO is also leading on the creation of an ‘All Energy’ Apprenticeship Programme that will provide technicians with various optional units, including topics such as ‘Hydrogen’ and ‘CCUS’ so that nuances and facets of these technologies are highlighted as part of an early career programme.

Specific training needs in relation to the above are still being analysed and developed; whilst there is similarity and cross-over in what skilled oil and gas workers and skilled hydrogen or CCUS workers will be required to do as part of their role, there will be salient differences.

The projects outlined above aim to address ongoing training concerns and provide a cross-mapping, solution-based roadmap, as well as a multi-faceted apprenticeship programme and attraction scheme, both critical as the UK continues to work towards net zero.

Work is already underway to map OPITO’s existing Emergency Response Framework and Industry Standards Library, used predominantly within the oil and gas sector until recently, to fully ascertain their suitability for hydrogen and whether additional standards, products, or qualifications, need to be created to meet the sectors requirements.

This need may come in different forms as opposed to simply production; the wider oil and gas supply chain will further diversify into other areas like applications in HGV activity and hydrogen blending. These skills may exist currently in the oil and gas supply chain, but a level of up or re-skilling will likely be required.

This could form the basis for an informative study or piece of research to be conducted to understand the breadth of the transferrable skills landscape and how that could be enhanced to benefit the Scottish workforce.

It is critical to identify these primary technology applications in the developing hydrogen economy as that will inform the skills landscape as some key projects underway in Scotland show the variety of technology applications already being utilised. This research to map the skill requirements for each of the key applications will help provide clear pathways for the workforce to transition into the Scottish hydrogen market and OPITO is committed to providing solutions to ensure the continued suitability of the workforce.

March 2022