To offset the depletion of oil and gas reserves and meet the demand increases expected by 2020, additional resources equivalent to approximately five times the oil capacity currently produced by Saudi Arabia and four times the gas capacity currently produced by Russia will be required.

It’s why new technologies are top of mind for more than 1,000 energy representatives — including leaders of some of the world’s largest energy companies such as Chevron, Petronas, and Saudi Aramco — at GE’s annual Oil & Gas summit, which is wrapping up today in Florence, Italy.

With the age of “easy oil” over, new technologies are increasingly unlocking stranded oil and gas resources, enhancing oil recovery from existing fields and helping to access unconventional, complex reservoirs. GE says it’s tackling that by accelerating R&D — and by integrating a number of new technologies across GE’s newly expanded Oil & Gas portfolio.

As Bloomberg News noted in its story, “GE, which agreed to $4.3 billion in acquisitions over the past four months in its energy segment, plans to boost results at the oil and gas unit from existing businesses by investing in research and plants. ‘If we find the right opportunity we’ll take a look, but we believe we can continue to grow the business organically,’ Claudi Santiago, the division’s chief executive, said in an interview in Florence.”

Last year, GE Oil & Gas expanded spending on engineering and R&D programs to $210 million and invested “$185 million in plant and equipment as it opened two service shops in Algeria and Qatar, a Warsaw subsea testing lab and expanded in Australia and Brazil.” In his keynote address, Santiago said that GE Oil & Gas has also added 600 engineers to its technology group.

Santiago underscored that increased R&D spending will lead to new technologies — and that’s what will “differentiate us from everybody else.” One such example on display at the summit was the world’s first subsea compressor, seen below.

First timer: The Blue-C Subsea Compressor — the world’s first subsea compressor — was showcased at the summit. It’s especially attractive for marginal subsea and deepwater fields in which the high cost of land-based facilities hampers development.

Santiago told attendees that in addition to GE Aviation technology being leveraged in oil & gas compressors, GE’s Global Research labs are contributing coatings and materials work that can be used in subsea valves. And technology used by GE’s nuclear division is being put to work in the Oil & Gas division’s drilling control systems.

At the conference, the Oil & Gas team described their outlook as taking what they call an “aviation mindset.” On the one hand, it’s quite literal: GE Oil & Gas draws on GE’s Aviation deep experience via aero-derivative gas turbines, material science technologies, remote monitoring and diagnostics, and by rotating its senior engineers through GE Aviation.

But it’s also part of a larger mindset that centers on safety and risk reduction in the wake of recent industry accidents. Santiago said that GE’s experience of operating in the heavily regulated aviation and nuclear industries is helping underpin the Oil & Gas team’s safety culture — and further increasing rigor in the design engineering, manufacturing, testing, installation and servicing of high-tech equipment.

In the audio clip below, John Lammas, VP-Engineering, GE Oil & Gas, gives an overview of the conference and the new subsea first.

On tap: Also at the summit, GE announced a series of deals: Compressors for underground gas storage in France and the UK; technology being put to use in the Trans Europa Naturgas Pipeline; subsea wellheads for projects off of Brazil; and the ecomagination certification of a key compressor technology that can avoid up to 3,800 metric tons of CO2 emissions.