EAGE invites you to join us (again) for the second conference in Strasbourg in November 2021, it is yet unclear what the pandemic will mean for the energy transition. When we started preparing the first conference ‘Geoscience and Engineering for the Energy Transition (GET2020)’ one year ago, we could not imagine where the world – and the energy sector – would be by the time it was held in November. In the shadow of the pandemic, 160 delegates from Europe and beyond met online to discuss the skills and technologies geoscience industries can deploy to enable the energy transition, covering an impressive breadth of disciplines, industries and approaches. Now, during the preparation for the second conference in November 2021, opportunities for re-starting the economy in a sustainable way are faced with the day-to-day challenges of the economic downturn, which may jeopardize our journey towards the Paris climate goals. 

Energy transition technologies have demonstrated remarkable degrees of maturity and a great potential to change the energy mix. All sustainable scenarios to meet the climate targets point towards a combination of these technologies and of different energy sources to feed the energy demand in a net-zero emission future.

GET2021 will address this context along three axes:

Continuing to showcase the work on the established uses of the subsurface for the energy transition, while broadening the scope of the debate by looking at the role of the subsurface disciplines for other energy sources.

Following the “trademark” approaches of the GET conferences by looking at the synergies between these uses and at the technical solutions that can be “crossed over” from one industry or application to another.

Reflecting on the underlying associated societal aspects, including financing, governance and policies, as well as the overall environmental impact and sustainability of the solutions we propose.

Giovanni Sosio is a technical team leader and project manager with Schlumberger in Paris. Born in Como, Italy, he graduated in Environmental engineering (Polytechnical Institute of Milan, 2003) and Applied geophysics (University of Milan, 2005) with projects on near-surface geophysics (GPR). He then joined Schlumberger as a wireline field engineer in the North Sea. He has held a variety of positions since then, most notably as subsurface project manager for a CO2 storage site demonstration project in Spain, as business development manager for geomechanical software in Continental Europe, and as a consulting project manager for geomechanical studies across Europe. He also coordinates Schlumberger’s geothermal consulting and software activities across Europe and has authored a dozen talks or papers on the subject. A member of the EAGE since 2007, he sits in the committee of the Decarbonization and Energy Transition community. He is also a member of the SPE and SPWLA. He is based in Paris since 2009.

Karin de Borst is a geomechanicist at Shell, developing emerging technologies for the assessment and mitigation of containment risks during hydrocarbon recovery and CO2 storage. Areas of interest include near-wellbore failure, data-driven geomechanics and uncertainty quantification, crossing length scales and disciplinary borders. Since September 2019, she is the Chair of the EAGE Special Interest Community ‘Decarbonization and Energy Transition’, which aims at promoting the energy transition among geoscientists and at developing the required skills for its delivery. She joined Shell in 2015 after a career in academia, where she was Reader at the University of Glasgow. She is a civil engineer and earned a PhD in computational mechanics and materials science from Vienna University of Technology. Her academic career was marked by an affinity to applications, and by a strong support for young scientists and collaboration.

Esther Bloem holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands (2008) and a M.Sc. in Mining and Petroleum Engineering (specializations: Applied Geophysics and Engineering Geology) from Delft University and Technology, The Netherlands (2002). Since 2008, she works as a research scientist at the Division of Environment and Natural Resources at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO).She works on issues concerning the environment, hydrogeology, agriculture, food security and climate change. Her research focus is on the impact of soil infiltration systems, irrigation systems, use of pesticides, potential salinization of the soil, groundwater extractions, saltwater intrusions, landfills and sewage spills, agriculture, industry (including airport activities) on soil and water quality. With her work she contributes to sustainable resource management, the reduction of negative environmental effects through development of measures, sustainable land use, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. She is an active member of EAGE. She is the Vice-Chair Officer for the Near Surface Geoscience Division (NSGD).