Despite concern about depleting reserves, innovation in the energy sector is particularly strong. Businesses working in the North Sea recognise that what they learn here about deep-water extraction will stand them in good stead when working or servicing fields in other parts of the world, particularly if they can secure patent protection for deep-water innovations.

One challenge the industry faces is tapping new wells. At depths of almost 2km, the technical challenges associated with installing equipment are immense. There is now a move towards new modular units that are dropped into place and then managed by remotely-operated underwater vehicles. New cages to protect the technology and mechanisms to manage the tools remotely are all patentable technologies.

Another challenge, affecting many brownfield sites in particular, is low reservoir pressure. As a harsh offshore area, lifting costs in the North Sea have long been carefully balanced against production revenue. However, as production slows due to reservoir depletion, some sites are becoming uneconomical. This has led to an increased focus on work to understand how new subsea, underwater technologies could increase reservoir output.

As reservoirs become depleted, a much higher proportion of water is pumped up along with the oil or gas and getting it back to a processing area can be costly. Innovative oil and gas companies are developing reliable processing systems which separate oil and gas from water while still on the sea bed. The oil and gas alone is then pumped to the surface.

Despite political interest – or perhaps because of it – there is still considerable interest in the North Sea.