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Industry News: Offshore Energy Industry urged to prioritise safety in the era of AI

September 1, 2025
Industry News: Offshore Energy Industry urged to prioritise safety in the era of AI

DNV research to reveal gap between AI and offshore safety at SPE Offshore Europe 2025

As part of the Digital: AI Supported Subsurface technical programme at SPE Offshore Europe 2025 (OE25), DNV, the independent energy expert and assurance provider, will spotlight its latest research into the emerging risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in the offshore sector.

With concerns such as cyberattacks or AI-driven equipment failures already on the radar of offshore operators, the paper demonstrates that less detectable risks, those emerging from unpredictable interactions between humans and AI, pose the greatest threat to operational safety.

AI is emerging as a useful tool in many industries, often in a bottom-up way as individuals use AI-based tools in their daily work. At the same time, AI technology itself is evolving at high-speed, with new capabilities and potential applications constantly arising.

Graham Faiz Head of Digital Energy at DNV said: “Ensuring safety in the face of a disruptive new technology is paramount, particularly in the offshore environment. AI will certainly find applications within the sector; however, its emergence presents a real challenge to regulators due to its disruptive nature, extremely rapid pace of development and easy accessibility to individuals. For example, if an individual engineer uses a generative AI engine to write standard operating procedures for a new piece of equipment, how does the industry ensure that maximum safety is maintained? This is just one example of how AI-related risks could potentially overwhelm traditional safety mechanisms.”

To address this growing challenge, DNV’s research proposes a systemic safety framework that incorporates safety engineering principles and AI assurance across the entire system lifecycle.

AI will be tested in offshore settings to understand and manage safety risks. Specific scenarios, known as ‘use cases’, will be studied to spot dangers and suggest ways to reduce them, focusing on how AI changes over time, how complex its decisions can be, and how it affects both people and the wider system. This approach forms the basis of the safety framework.

Hari Vamadevan, Senior Vice President and Regional Director UK and Ireland, Energy Systems at DNV, said: “Offshore Europe brings together organisations and industry leaders from across the global energy sector, making it the ideal platform to showcase innovation and contribute to critical industry conversations. AI is becoming increasingly ingrained in the industry, and as humans and AI become more integrated their interactions become more unpredictable. However, we have seen little consideration of how existing safety systems can address this new technology. A new approach is needed to directly address the emergent risks of AI integration across our industry.

“As the UK continues to build out its renewable energy infrastructure, we see a strong opportunity to develop and embed robust safety frameworks, which include the use of AI, from the very beginning. By identifying and mitigating potential risks, our work aims to prevent unintended consequences and ensure the safe integration of AI in safety-critical operations.”

This year’s paper is a continuation of DNV’s research that was presented at OE23, which found that although AI is being readily used across the sector, there was a lack of trust in the technology. Two years on, the conversation has shifted to how the industry can address the challenges that AI will introduce. A 2025 DNV survey found that, of 1160 companies across Europe, North America, Central and South America, and Asia, 60% of respondents state that they will use AI-driven applications in their operations in the year ahead; up from 47% in 2024.

The research will be presented at OE25, taking place 2-5 September at P&J Live, Aberdeen. There are 18 other technical sessions on the programme, including Net Zero: Net Zero to 2050, Oil and Gas: Development Drilling, and Oil and Gas: Decom. A record 600 abstracts were submitted by businesses across the energy supply chain for consideration for this year’s conference.

DNV will present its technical paper and findings as part of the Digital: AI Supported Subsurface technical session on Wednesday, 3 September at 2:30pm in Meeting Room 7. With the offshore industry pushing forward on digital transformation and net-zero goals, DNV’s findings are expected to play a key role in shaping safety standards and AI governance across the sector.

Register for Offshore Europe, here: Take Part in Offshore Europe

Follow DNV on LinkedIn for further updates on its framework.

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AREG has played an important role in the growth of Scotland’s renewable energy sector, engaging the supply chain and developing the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. However, we are only at the very beginning of the transition that AREG was established to both lead and support so there are still opportunities for companies to get into the constantly evolving renewables supply chain. We look forward to continuing our work together as renewables builds on its place as Scotland’s main source of power, and as we seek to deliver real change in the crucial areas of heat and transport.

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Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce has worked closely with AREG since its formation. The recent progress in the developments of offshore wind projects by Equinor and Vattenfall are as a result of the work of the group over many years. The north-east is known as the oil and gas capital of Europe. At the Chamber, we believe the region must evolve its position to being recognised as the energy capital. Whilst hydrocarbons will continue to be essential in driving our economy for years to come, the generation of renewable resources will play an increasingly important role in providing cost-effective power, innovative development and economic growth.

Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce
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The enthusiasm and dedication of the early group that would become AREG was fundamental in us choosing to launch All-Energy in Aberdeen. The first tiny show was held in 2001, and AREG’s Chairman at the time, Jeremy Cresswell, played such an active role that I often describe him in terms such as All-Energy’s ‘midwife’. All-Energy is now the UK’s largest renewable and low carbon energy exhibition and conference in terms of number of attendees, space booked, and number of exhibiting companies. As AREG became firmly established, their presence and support for the event grew spectacularly over the years. We thank them most sincerely for their invaluable input.

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Vattenfall has forged a strong working relationship with AREG through the development of the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre. AREG has worked tirelessly on behalf of the North East and it can take enormous credit for the growth of sustainable energy in the region and the path it has cleared for the region to capture further investment.

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Aberdeen City and Shire is emerging as a key location for renewables by successfully transferring its world-class oil and gas expertise into the sector and AREG has done much to advance this through a broad range of initiatives. It has acted as a catalyst in driving further investment in the local economy by engaging with companies, Government, public bodies and existing projects and we have been pleased to support their efforts. Scottish Enterprise will continue to engage with AREG as we increase Scotland’s use of renewable energy.

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