And here we are in December once again and moving towards 2020. The past year has been rather eventful with many changes in the industry. More than ever it is abundantly clear that the industry is looking for innovation and new solutions. Simply cutting margins and providing the same old is no longer cutting it.

The end clients are looking to save money (that’s not new for this year!) and they are looking to reduce their impact on the environment, comply with ever more stringent environmental regulations and to publicly show that the oil industry can reduce its impact on climate change emissions.

There are many solutions and technologies available today that have the capability to bring enormous savings to the oil companies and with the right support from those oil companies these can be scaled up. There is enormous scope for improvement in the industry and I know from my own network of industry professionals there is tremendous appetite to make an impact. The Oil & Gas Technology Centre in Aberdeen is a great example and the TechX programme for startups and early stage companies has resulted in some fantastic new companies.

The industry needs to move away from “cheapest is best” to simply choosing the best available option. As an environmental engineer and someone who has worked for 20 years to reduce oil waste I find it incredibly encouraging that environmental regulations are tightening around the world. Simply leaving the waste is no longer acceptable.

The benefits of treating the oil based waste or, even better, preventing it from existing in the first place are numerous. We all live on this planet, many of us are outdoors people, have families. It’s rather nice to live in a clean environment. Complying with more stringent regulations requires innovation, creates new and high value jobs and pushes us all in the industry to be better.

In 2020 there is no excuse to keep doing things the old way and the industry needs to embrace a desire to be the best at each stage. The energy industry has changed and is changing. The expertise, experience, quality of engineering and problem solving we have in the energy and environmental industry will be required from here on. Whatever the global energy mix will be. To make the case for a continued, long term leading role it is essential leadership is shown. That’s starts with doing the right things doing them right.

I am hugely excited about the future and 2020. There is a shift happening in the energy industry and being part of that is going to be interesting, challenging and ultimately rewarding. I will see you all in 2020 and we will do whatever we can to support your efforts in doing the right things.