OTC 2000
SPECIAL FOCUSOTC 2000Preview of the technical program for the 32nd Annual Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, May 1 – 4
Highlights of this year’s conference will include a number of deepwater-related sessions, including issues related to FPSOs and AUVs (autonomous underwater vehicles). As expected, sessions will also address the main deepwater areas of the world – West Africa, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. The changing nature of the industry will be the subject of the two general sessions and will be approached from both a global view and a Gulf of Mexico standpoint. There will also be eight topical luncheons covering an array of subjects, with some targeted to specific regions or to specific technological areas. This year, there will be nine technical session keynote speakers who represent the leading voices in the offshore industry. These keynote speakers will focus on emerging regions and highlight industry trends from around the world.
Exhibits With about 2,000 companies exhibiting this year, OTC’s exhibition boasts representatives from 30 countries and every offshore producing region of the world. Some 370,000 sq ft of exhibit space, both indoors and outdoors, will feature equipment and services for all phases of the offshore market. Active Arena Each year, the program committee selects one particular area of intense offshore activity to highlight as its Active Arena. For OTC 2000, the selection is the West Coast of Africa, which is the most active deepwater oil and gas arena in the world, outside of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The region boasts wildcat discovery rates as high as 35 to 40%, with average field sizes greater than in the Gulf of Mexico. However, West Africa is beset by significant challenges, including political instability, civil war, terrorist activities, lack of infrastructure and a poorly developed contractor network. This Active Arena session will detail some of the current developments in progress and explore the region’s tremendous opportunities and challenges. General Sessions Two general sessions will feature panel discussions in a talk show format. After panelists present their individual topics, discussion will proceed within the group. Session 1, on Tuesday afternoon, will address The Changing Face of the Offshore Industry: A Global Perspective. With the tremendous changes incurred in recent years, and those continuing to be made, vital issues now affect everyone working in the offshore industry. Questions to be debated in this session will include:
Session moderator will be Collin Moynihan, now with CMA Consultants and formerly UK Minister for Energy under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Majors. Panelists will include Richard Cheney, chairman and CEO of Halliburton Co.; Sheldon R. Erickson, president and CEO, Cooper Cameron Corp.; Jack E. Golden, group vice president, BP Amoco Plc.; William C. O’Malley, chairman, president, and CEO, Tidewater Inc.; and Paul M. Mecray III, senior vice president, partner and global analyst, Wellington Management Co. Session 2, on Wednesday afternoon, will examine The Changing Face of the Offshore Industry: A Gulf of Mexico Perspective. This session will address the changing roles and responsibilities of operators, contractors and equipment suppliers in both mature and emerging offshore areas typified by the Gulf of Mexico. The challenge of developing deepwater reserves, while maintaining and enhancing productive shelf property, will be discussed. The debate should address questions such as:
Session 2 will be moderated by William Walker, president of Howard, Weil, LaBouisse, Friedrichs Inc. Panelists include Roger Beach, chairman, president and CEO, Unocal Corp.; James Flores, vice chairman, Ocean Energy Inc.; John Huff, chairman and CEO, Oceaneering Inc.; Peter Kinnear, division president, FMC Energy Systems Group; and Robert E. Rose, chairman, president and CEO, Global Marine Inc. Technical Sessions Excluding the two general sessions, OTC will stage 49 technical sessions over three-and-a-half days. Sessions will be held concurrently each morning and afternoon in locations to be specified. Some 340 technical papers will be presented. These sessions have been categorized into operational functions to give readers an overview of the offshore technology available for various professional areas of interest. The accompanying table lists the categories of interest, the individual session titles within those categories and the times they will be presented. It should surprise no one that a large number of sessions are devoted to deepwater design considerations. Relevant papers will be presented by firms active in the U.S. GOM, the North Sea, offshore Brazil and offshore West Africa. Individual papers will cover subjects associated with every facet of deepwater operations, from exploration to production and transportation. A number of countries and their major offshore field developments are the subjects of their own sessions. These include the Gemini and Terra Nova projects, Zafiro field development, Roncador field and the Elgin Franklin project. Technical program keynote speakers. OTC 200 will feature a lineup of technical session speakers who will represent the leading voices in the offshore industry. These speakers will address a variety of issues that concern emerging regions and highlight industry trends from around the world. Speakers and their topics will include: Neal Goins, principal technologist geoscience, Mobil Corp., "Reservoir characterization – Challenges and opportunities" Dodd DeCamp, vice president of exploration, ARCO, "Meeting the challenge: Advancing seismic technology in frontier exploration and development" Edith Allison, manager of gas hydrates and oil and gas diagnostics and imaging programs, Office of Natural Gas and Petroleum Technology, "U.S. Dept. of Energy Gas Hydrate Research Impacting Offshore Development" Robert Edwardes, Angola Block 15 project technical manager, "Execution of offshore projects: West Coast of Africa" William Bashore, president, Reservoir Characterization Research and Consulting Inc., "Realizing the promise of multidisciplinary integration" Karl Berteussen, senior vice president of reservoir technology, Petroleum Geoservices, "The cost-efficiency of the new marine seismic technology" Roger Anderson, research scientist, Columbia U., New York, "Economics of 4-D reservoir management" Luis Machado, E&P executive general manager, Petrobras, "Roncador field development: An overview" Christopher Ifeadi, Nigerian Dept. of Petroleum Resources, "Environmental sensitivity index mapping in Nigeria and what it holds for the operators" Topical Luncheons 1. Offshore West Africa – A technical and strategic perspective. Heinz Rothermund, managing director, Shell E&P Intl. B.V., will discuss how the sharp drop in oil prices in 1998 challenged deepwater oil and gas developments. Reductions in work programs and investment levels had major impacts on rig markets and bidding rounds. With the outlook for future oil prices remaining uncertain, effective integration, learning and dissemination will be key to realizing deepwater potential. Integrating geological and reservoir modeling is vital for resolving reservoir uncertainty quickly and cost-effectively. Learning from experience is essential for reducing costs. Extending deepwater success from the few leading areas to realize worldwide opportunities depends on disseminating skills and technology. Superficial communication – without real appreciation of different conditions – may actually mislead. Effective dissemination requires removing barriers – within and between organizations – and establishing the capability and culture for professional exchange. 2. Offshore geoscience needs in the 21st Century: A USGS perspective. Charles G. Groat, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, recognizes that oil and gas resources in offshore basins will increasingly be targeted for exploration in the 21st Century, and thus, geotechnical information needs for these hostile environments will grow. Mapping, based on new and existing information, can provide the foundation for opportunity in this challenging environment. Groat will describe the USGS and its ability to implement this type of program in cooperation with industry and other federal agencies. 3. Ensuring excellent project results. Steve Woodruff, general manager of Chevron’s Project Resources group, recognizes that, more often than not, projects succeed or fail not on hard technical issues, but instead on the ability to create a high-performance team. Issues such as effective alignment, trust, frequent communications, accountability and positive reinforcement all work together to prevent barriers from forming and affecting the project cost, schedule and outcome. This discussion will highlight "lessons learned" from a broad spectrum of projects to underline the critical role that the "human side" of project management plays in the success of all projects. 4. Consolidation in the upstream oil and gas industry – Past, present and future. Scott B. Gill, director and co-head of Research, Simmons & Co. Intl., says that, while one can debate the length of industry cycle times, all agree that the oil and gas industry is cyclical. And, as the recent past has shown, its cycles have become more volatile. During the 1990s, crude prices have risen above U.S. $25/bbl on three separate occasions and fallen below U.S. $15/bbl on two. Within this cyclical and volatile environment, industry consolidation has taken place at an increasing pace throughout the 1990s. In this presentation, the industry’s macro drivers (supply and demand for oil and natural gas) are examined, along with the industry’s merger and acquisition activity during this period. Gill will also present his firm’s outlook for future supply and demand fundamentals, drawing implications for future industry consolidation. 5. FPSOs in the Gulf of Mexico: EIS, regulatory considerations and timing. Walt Rosenbusch, director of Minerals Management Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, will discuss an industry-funded contract, administered by the MMS, to prepare a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the use of FPSOs in the Gulf of Mexico. Now underway and to be completed in 2000, the EIS will cover FPSOs in the deepwater (>1,000 ft) Gulf. Both the timing of the EIS and the issues discussed in it will be described. Other MMS regulatory considerations also will be addressed. 6. Thermal benefits of flowline burial in deepwater environments. Kenneth Lock, senior engineer, Stolt Offshore S.A., will describe how buried or buried and coated (B&C) flowlines have thermal properties that make single-pipe systems feasible for many projects thought possible only with pipe-in-pipe (PIP) systems. Analyses with newly discovered soil properties show that B&C systems can provide the required steady-state outlet temperatures for many long flowline systems. In addition, because of their heat-affected zones, B&C systems have far greater cool-down. Most importantly, B&C flowlines offer lower overall costs and simpler repair scenarios. 7. The importance of new frontiers to meet the global energy demand in the 21st Century. Stephen M. Cassiani, executive vice president, Exxon Exploration Co., discusses how oil and gas consumption is projected to increase from 40% to 60% of the world’s total energy demand in the first half of the 21st Century. Yet, with its vital role in fueling economic growth in industrial nations and for meeting aspirations for improved living standards and economic growth in developing countries, a potential demand/ supply gap exists. In less than 25 years, three-quarters of the required oil and gas will have to come from fields not yet discovered or on stream. To succeed in the 21st Century, however, we must not only focus on where we will explore for and produce hydrocarbons, but also on how it is done. Central to each company’s success or failure will be the choices made about how to leverage and obtain maximum value from technology, but more importantly, from people – their knowledge and ability to understand and apply the fundamental principles of science. 8. Deepwater: Not for the faint-hearted. While the industry has successfully embraced subsea business solutions for shelf applications, Ian G. Ball, global subsea systems development advisor, Shell Intl. E&P Inc., says lessons learned in recent years have demonstrated starkly that for deepwater development scenarios, the stakes are raised substantially. The operators that are able to play a win-win game at these high stakes will be the ones that combine the stomach to pioneer with the acumen and commitment to get it right the first time. Some of the milestone lessons learned will be reviewed as illustrations.
Awards Luncheon The Annual OTC Distinguished Achievement Award recognizes significant contributions to the offshore industry by an individual and by those of a single company or institution. This year, William S. French and Kerr-McGee will be the recipients. French is considered the father of modern 3-D seismic surveys, and in 1993, he placed the first massively-parallel computer on board a 3-D seismic vessel. It was the first time 3-D surveys had been processed exclusively on a ship, and the change led to a reduction in turn-around time for surveys, from 18 months to six months. Kerr-McGee is being recognized for its FPS Neptune project, which featured the first use of spars for offshore production, processing and operations. Installed in more than 2,000 ft of water, the spar uses individually buoyant well risers and surface trees. It is held on location by a six-point, taut-leg mooring system. Forty-five months after the concept was introduced, first production was obtained in March 1997. The keynote speaker for the awards luncheon will be John Browne, group
chief executive of BP Amoco plc. |
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or the
32nd consecutive year, the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) will take place in Houston May 1 – 4 in
the Astrodome USA complex. Begun in 1969 with 4,200 attendees, OTC has become the world’s foremost event
for the development of offshore resources geared to exploration, drilling, production, transportation and
environmental protection.
