Partner Content
Having been a geoscientist for nearly 20 years, I have long appreciated the value and importance of the energy geoscience industry. Over the years, I have watched the industry literally drive the future of energy by providing the improved and greater insight needed for sustainable energy exploration, production, and development – setting the course for lower-carbon solutions. For example, marine geoscience data acquisition and processing have evolved rapidly over the past few years, providing more detailed imaging of the sub-surface, and enabling greater precision in locating valuable energy resources.
Because geoscience data opens the gateway to the safe discovery, development, and delivery of the energy our growing world population needs, the energy geoscience industry is a critical partner in energy modernisation and energy evolution, providing increasing sustainable access to mainstay and alternative energy and lower-carbon solutions.
No matter the preferred energy source, geoscience surveys provide the information governments and policymakers need to make decisions in the best interests of their citizens for accessing their mainstay and alternative energy resources and low-carbon strategies on their lands and off their coasts. It all starts here. Geoscience surveys directly support, and are critical to, the implementation of technology and policies seeking to reduce CO2 emissions. This remains true in both Africa and around the world.
As the EnerGeo Alliance chairman of the board, I understand the power of data and am proud of the work the EnerGeo Alliance does in ensuring our industry is positioned to continue connecting people in Africa to energy, where access to affordable energy can open the door to greater prosperity, well-being, and opportunity.
For a century, the energy geoscience industry has been on the cutting edge of science and technology, providing solutions to some of the world’s more complex energy challenges, that leverage our unmatched understanding of the earth to meet the world’s growing energy needs – and we are just getting started. And for 52 years of that century, EnerGeo has served as the catalyst for our industry. As a data-based regulatory expert and the only trade organisation representing the global energy geoscience industry, we promote access to information and freedom to operate by increasing the credibility and visibility of our work through global government engagement and industry leadership.
We are the voice of the energy geoscience industry, setting the standard for operational and environmental best practices, applying our scientific, regulatory, legal, and communications expertise, and advocating for access to data acquisition and acreage for both the energy geoscience company and the energy explorer/developer.
With energy security and access challenges on the rise, affecting millions of Africans, we are facing the world’s greatest balancing act — how to simultaneously meet the world’s growing energy demands while rapidly reducing harmful emissions. Energy needs differ greatly around the globe. This is why the EnerGeo Alliance works continuously to develop and promote policies that are in the best interest of – and respect – each nation’s place on the energy evolution scale and supports their advancement and expansion of energy, regardless of energy source.
So, whether it’s a mainstay energy source such as petroleum or natural gas, alternative energy such as on-shore and off-shore wind or geothermal, and hydrogen or low-carbon solutions such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), EnerGeo members are the leaders and innovators in discovering, developing, and delivering the energy a growing world population needs to thrive while helping to meet net-zero goals.
The EnerGeo Alliance is a responsible and trusted partner for the energy geoscience industry and governments. EnerGeo supports governments and advocates the prioritisation of geoscience throughout the life of energy assets; predictable lease-bid rounds; regulatory and fiscal certainty; and promulgation of risk and science-based regulations and mitigation requirements.
The EnerGeo Alliance and the broader energy geoscience industry recognise the importance of environmental stewardship and the integral part the energy geoscience industry plays in responding to potential global health and safety risks. That means using critical energy geoscience data to drive practical decisions in expanding energy optionality that most appropriately meets the needs of the energy evolution scale of respective nations. EnerGeo remains resolute in its commitment to advocate for the energy geoscience industry, which enables the delivery of affordable energy safely and sustainably.
This is especially important for Africa’s developing economies. As the energy industry broadens, thanks to new technologies and new interest in emerging areas such as hydrogen, energy storage, expanded CCUS, and geothermal energy, there is an increasing need for harmonisation of energy policies, regulations, as well as coordination to meet the energy needs of countries and their citizens.
EnerGeo supports governments, advocating the prioritisation of geoscience throughout the life of energy assets. Because our industry is the tip of the spear for nearly all energy sources and lower-carbon solutions, we are essential for energy today and energy tomorrow.
Eliminating energy poverty remains a top priority of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so we need all sources of energy at the table in Africa to meet skyrocketing demand for energy security and accessibility. It is an energy evolution, and to be successful it needs careful planning, smart decisions and as many options as we have – including the geoscience data needed to make informed choices.
Our collective workforce is responsible for bringing the immense benefits of geoscience innovation and insight to enable the energy evolution, and we are proud of the pivotal role we get to play in this irreplaceable industry, alongside our industry’s most prolific advocate, the EnerGeo Alliance. It is our desire to bring that same partnership to Africa.
As African nations develop and implement their goals to make reliable, affordable energy available to their citizens, while striving for net zero emissions (NZE) policy ambitions, it is important to understand that those goals cannot and will not be realised without the critical data and technology the geoscience industry provides. So, when we say “Energy Starts Here®, we mean it.
Andrea Lovatini is Digital and Integration (D&I) Director for Exploration Data and Geosolutions. He is responsible for the Multi-client and Geosolutions businesses globally for SLB. Andrea has an MsC in Telecommunication Engineering, with a specialisation in digital signal processing, from the Politecnico of Milan, Italy. He started his career as a geophysicist in Geosystem, a geophysical integration company that was purchased by Schlumberger in 2007. There he held various positions, working on electromagnetic methods, ranging from algorithm development to field processing, to geophysical consulting. In Schlumberger he held several technical and managerial roles, both in WesternGeco and Petro Technical Services. This included managing the marine onboard geophysics team and leading the Center of Excellence for Multiphysics.
