Given the key challenges from rising global energy demand coupled with depleting major oil reserves in high-risk areas of the world, new oil and gas reserve discovery is a major capability that supports future growth. However, in the absence of any significant finds, creating new technological solutions to extract more from existing fields and accessing the less conveniently located reserves in deep sea, tar sands and possibly underneath the Antarctic is a major area of innovation opportunity. As off-shore oil production costs steadily increase, oil and gas companies are being driven to find clever ways to reduce platform personnel, operate multiple fields from a single platform and in some cases dispense with platforms all together by moving underwater.

Outside oil and gas, but still within traditional fossil fuels, there is also a growing focus on clean solutions to coal extraction and supply. This has huge impact for the likes of China and the increasingly domestically focused US. In the increasingly popular renewable energy arena, the major area for innovation activity is in creating economic solutions that can meet the long-term mass market demand and supply needs.