ABERDEEN, Scotland—The North Sea oil and gas industry must stop over-engineering its projects if it wants to lower costs—and it needs to act urgently, according to the CEO of one of the U.K.’s leading offshore contractors.

Speaking during SPE Offshore Europe 2015 in Aberdeen, Proserv CEO David Lamont said the North Sea has many years of profitable life ahead of it if the industry quickly adopts more collaborative and efficient business practices.

“Despite talk in recent years of the urgent need to act and collaborate, even before the oil price crash, the industry as a whole still has a long way to go,” Lamont said. “Everyone knows what needs to be done, but the inertia in the industry is of great concern.”

Changing the approach now to how business is conducted can result in the industry thriving, instead of simply surviving, he said.

During a press briefing, Lamont spoke about the industry’s need to “rekindle the pioneering spirit that made the North Sea great” and work to ensure that the region does not fade out prematurely, but rather flourish. But a fundamental change in the way it works is required.

“As a start, we must stop over-engineering if we are to reset the cost base. Realizing the value of the huge number of marginal fields in the UKCS will only be possible if we as an industry collaborate and cooperate to make the most of the existing infrastructure, enhanced only by the most appropriate and efficient technology and engineering know-how,” Lamont added. “Applying the same old engineering practice and business model is simply not an option.”

Although there is evidence of collaboration within the industry, he said this is still the exception rather than the norm.

“Too many people in the industry are still holding their breath for a return to the good old days of $100 oil,” Lamont said, “which simply won’t happen, and even if it does, the practices of the recent past are too wasteful in any case.”

Discussing brownfield subsea developments, Lamont also challenged the industry to change its “remove the old and replace with the new” culture.

The typical response to a problem is a complete system change when a more flexible, simpler approach may be the better option, especially given today’s low commodity price environment. “After all, you wouldn’t replace your car if the windscreen wiper wasn’t working,” he said.

When Proserv needs to replace electronics in a subsea control module, for example, the company applies what Lamont called subsea system brain surgery. Instead of changing out the entire control module, which can be costly and risky because of changes to all the external interfaces, the company focuses on solving the electronics issue, he said.

“Replacing only the electronics allows for the external interfaces to remain intact. In addition, it gives operators a truly ‘maintenance free’ subsea production control system and uninterrupted production, with state-of-the-art system capability to allow the use of advanced system monitoring and data gathering,” Lamont continued.

He also described the maintenance and optimization of aging brownfield subsea fields as critical.

When it comes to decision-making for brownfield assets, the longer it takes to find the most cost-effective way to maximize output the more expensive that decision becomes, Lamont said.

The industry will risk the future of assets by not changing the operating model, he added.

“A subsea asset which is losing production revenue, against a backdrop of increased operating costs, is only going to become less viable to the point of shut-down and decommissioning—denying the world recovery of a limited and valuable resource,” Lamont said. “No matter what the commodity price is now or in the future, we have it within our power as an industry to control costs, improve efficiencies and prosper. We owe it to ourselves and to the next generation.”

Mark Thomas can be reached at mthomas@hartenergy.com.