2023-07-17 13:49:56
For many people, Technip remains one of the emblematic companies of French know-how in petroleum engineering. It was also created in 1958 by the French Petroleum Institute (IFP, now Ifpen), at the request of General de Gaulle.
Change of era today, and its managing director, Arnaud Pieton, who entered it in 2004, is a little annoyed that the company is still presented as an oil services company. In 2022, oil represented less than 8% of the 6.4 billion euros in turnover.
Decarbonizing gas infrastructure
The term of « paragazière » would be fairer, underlines his boss. Technip Energies, its new name since 2021, after its separation from the American FMC, carries out 60% of its activity in gas. “It is a transitional fossil energy, much less emitting than other hydrocarbons. And if we replaced oil everywhere with gas, we would be on the trajectory of the Paris Agreements», says Arnaud Pieton. According to him, the company has chosen to dedicate the skills of its 15,000 engineers “to solutions that are part of the Net Zero trajectory”.
This is particularly the case for the construction of liquefied natural gas (LNG) production units, in which Technip is the world leader. In the new liquefaction trains it will build in Qatar, 30% of the CO2 will be captured. In the United Arab Emirates, the next turbines needed to liquefy gas will even be powered by nuclear electricity. This will make it possible to recover 100% of upstream gas emissions.
Create a French carbon sequestration sector
The group also wants to accelerate its activity in CO2 capture “to scale up», according to Arnaud Pieton. Technip is not starting from scratch. Of the 230 gray hydrogen production units (obtained from methane) that it has built around the world, i.e. a third of existing capacities, 50 are already equipped with carbon capture, reinjected into the industrial process.
In Norway, the group won the call for tenders to recover 500,000 tonnes of CO2 from the Oslo incineration plant, then sent by boat to storage sites under the North Sea. The sites alone account for 20% of the Norwegian capital’s CO2 emissions.
The costs of these technologies have already been reduced by 30% in two years and the movement should continue, judge Arnaud Pieton. He pleads for the creation of a French sector of carbon sequestration, built around its flagships, Technip, Schlumberger, TotalEnergies or Engie.
Hydrogen joint venture
In the meantime, public aid is also helping to boost the market, as in the United States. Technip is working on a giant CO2 capture project (seven million tonnes) for an ExxonMobil refinery near Houston, the second in the country in terms of capacity, which will then be used to produce low-carbon hydrogen.
On the other hand, the subject is progressing less in Europe, given the opposition of the Germans to accepting that this hydrogen can be produced from nuclear power. But projects are multiplying elsewhere. “That’s enough to keep us busy”, notes the manager. This is the case, for example, in India, where the authorities will impose increasing rates of use of green hydrogen in the production of fertilizers.
Technip wants to go fast. In May, he announced the creation of Rely, a joint venture with the Belgian John Cockerill, to provide turnkey solutions to manufacturers. It should be operational by the end of this year. The Belgian will provide its electrolyzers (it has 30% of the world market), and the French will take care of setting up the surrounding equipment. Technip seeks to capitalize on its experience in setting up complex sites.
Floating wind projects
This is also what drives the group to closely monitor the expected development of biofuels, as a substitute, even partial, for fossil fuels. “We have a role to play in everything that makes chemical and refining sites less CO2 emitters»insists Arnaud Pieton.
Technip’s skills in the construction of offshore platforms also encouraged it to take an interest in floating wind power. Last year, it won the world’s first commercial-scale pre-project study contracts in South Korea and offshore Sicily.
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