Invaluable resources expand offshore knowledge at OTC.05

For over 35 years the Offshore Technology Conference has presented the latest technology for global offshore exploration. OTC.05 will continue that trend as it presents A Sea of Resources - An Ocean of Knowledge to offshore oil and gas leaders from around the world.

The offshore industry’s largest event complements state-of-the-art technology exhibits with concurrently running technical sessions. Attendees can catch additional presentations at one of the three industry breakfasts, 10 luncheons, two panel sessions, and one Active arena, where international industry experts will explore issues affecting the offshore industry worldwide.

Active area, panel sessions

OTC has matched top company executives and industry innovators for two roundtable discussions on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9:30-12. Sandeep Khurana, senior specialist at JP Kenny Inc., will moderate both panel sessions. The first session will address deepwater and ultra-deepwater fields. It will cover how operators and contractors collaborate and partner on financial and technical aspects to develop deepwater and ultra-deepwater fields. The underlying objective of the collaboration is that the risk is shared, while operators and contractors concentrate on their core business.

The Oil and Gas Reserves Estimates program is scheduled for Wednesday, May 4. This panel will debate issues that may lead to different reserves estimates for different purposes, including regulatory reporting and the best way to achieve consistency in reporting mechanisms. The panelists will focus on the offshore arena, where continually improving technologies such as 3D seismic, deepwater drilling, and formation evaluation procedures, can provide improved estimates but are not necessarily recognized by regulatory authorities as indicators of reasonable certainty. Additionally, the panel will discuss the rapidly changing stance taken by different regulatory authorities in reporting reserves in the midst of the increasingly global nature of the industry. They also will debate solutions to reporting mechanism problems that generate consistency and at the same time can be used as a useful parameter in assessing a company’s value without compromising confidentiality.

Thursday’s active area will focus on LNG. The outlook for bringing LNG into the US looks bright, and developers continue to announce potential new terminal locations. Many developers are looking offshore to place their facilities and are facing new design challenges. As import terminal concepts emerge, it is important for terminal developers to recognize consumer needs in shaping the characteristics and components of the LNG facility and its gas supply infrastructure. Of prime importance is making the import facility at least as flexible and reliable as domestic wellhead production. Integrating cavern gas storage directly into an LNG re-gas terminal will greatly enhance the facility’s ability to meet US customer demands.

Industry breakfasts

Attendees can start each day with a healthy dose of industry leaders discussing the current trends in key developing areas. The US Department of Commerce and the OTC board of directors will host the breakfasts, which start Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. with a talk on Canada’s evolving offshore oil and gas industries. This event will feature an overview of Canada’s oil and gas reserves with a focus on recent developments in Atlantic Canada’s oil and gas fields and the current fiscal environment for offshore oil and gas investments. Public and private sector representatives will also provide updates on the development of LNG import terminals in Atlantic Canada.

Continuing on Wednesday, the breakfast will highlight Norwegian offshore commercial opportunities. In this forum, the presenters will discuss Norway’s effort to increase exploration and production activity on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). Officials from the Norwegian government will present on the resource situation and the framework conditions on the NCS.

Wrapping up the week, Thursday’s breakfast will offer public and private sector presentations on commercial prospects in Libya’s oil and gas sector and focus on Libya’s desire to attract new investment in its energy sector.

Please note that each breakfast requires a ticket. Tickets may be purchased for $25 when you register for OTC.

Topical luncheons

Ten topical luncheons are scheduled Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, covering issues from current and future offshore developments to industry challenges, best practices, new concepts, case studies, and future opportunities. The presentations will focus on critical issues ranging from innovative technologies and security planning to emerging world regions. OTC expects the luncheons to be highly attended and encourages participants to purchase tickets for $35 in advance.

Following the mega-mergers of the late 1990s, the amount of money industry spent on seismic, drilling, and the associated technology development declined substantially. James Farnsworth, technology vice president, Exploration, BP, will presentThe critical role technology has played and will play in the global reach of BP’s exploration efforts on Monday at 12:15 p.m.-1:45 p.m. He will discuss the need to replace reserves, in the face of increasingly complex challenges, which has forced the E&P industry to re-emphasize the role of exploration in resource renewal. Farnsworth will focus on the growing emphasis on renewal of the industry’s reserves base through exploration and technology development.

Also on Monday, Bruce Bowie, director general, Energy & Marine Branch, Industry Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, will talk aboutCanada’s east coast offshore opportunities. Bowie will focus on the east coast of Canada, as it presents significant challenges and future potential. During this luncheon Bowie will discuss developments and describe measures being implemented to encourage new investment, maximize industrial opportunities, and support the development of the oil and gas sector.

Innovative approaches to gathering systems for producing wells in deepwaterwill run concurrently. John Reed, CEO, INTEC Engineering, will discuss long-distance delivery management and the need to expand the current ability to reach and produce hydrocarbon deposits farther and farther from significant infrastructure. The push is on for increasing the distance from wellhead to facility to bring more reserves into economic viability. But the answer does not lie in any single technology. Reed will highlight the current projects using existing technology and describes the gaps that impede the ultimate goal.

Chairman and CEO of Simmons & Co. International, Matt Simmons’The big surprises in 2005 will be the highlight of Monday’s luncheons.

During this presentation, Simmons will address the big surprises that were not visible on anyone’s radar screen or planning board as the 2004 OTC came to a close. Shedding light on why these events came as a surprise can help energy industry leaders better cope with doing business under the umbrella of uncertainty that marks the nature of offshore energy.

Five concurrent luncheons on Wednesday will include a speech from James Hackett, president and CEO, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., titledEstimating oil & gas reserves - our most important asset. Hackett will discuss the company’s hydrocarbon reserves as its most important asset and the proper accounting and estimation of those reserves is crucial to a company’s valuation. He will focus on why the industry needs to expand its disclosure and transparency around oil and natural gas reporting. In addition, the presentation will highlight how all reserves are not created equal and the important implication of the current value of booked reserves.

Also Wednesday, Yuan Guangyu, CEO and president, CNOOC/COSL, will presentThe energy resources demand in China and development of China oil industry. Guangyu will look at the constant and rapid development of economy, the energy resources demand China is now experiencing. Attendees will learn about the pressures as well as opportunities for China oil industry.

Those interested in offshore oil and gas security issues may want to attend a lunch discussion by a similar name. Captain Ronald W. Branch, US Coast Guard, will look at recent attacks against operations in the Arabian Gulf. During this luncheon, Branch will cover many security measures that offshore operators should take into account.

Engineering drives projects - what drives engineering?will run concurrently. William Higgs, co-founder/president, Mustang Engineering, will lead this presentation on good, mediocre, and poor projects. He will discuss how we can improve project execution by understanding what drives engineering. Owners, contractors, vendors, and engineers will benefit from this presentation with lively discussion.

The future of subsea technologywill be Wednesday’s final luncheon topic. Richard Frisbie, senior vice president, Deepwater Technology, Oceaneering, will discuss the direction in which technology and equipment are progressing in the areas of subsea construction/completion, intervention, and life-of-field support. Frisbie will look at past and current drivers of these technologies; the cost implications of these changes, and their likely evolutionary paths.

Thursday’s lone luncheon will addressOpportunities and challenges in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. David Eyton, vice president, E&P Segment, Deepwater Development Projects, BP, will lead the final luncheon discussion.

Technical program

OTC has another outstanding technical program planned for its 36th year. Kerr-McGee’s vice president, Marine Engineering, Don Vardeman will kick off the week as the Keynote speaker on the Red Hawk project in the Gulf of Mexico. Representatives from Kerr-McGee will discuss the field architecture and soil testing, while Technip explains the cell spar topsides and hull and the polyester mooring system. Red Hawk, the world’s first cell spar facility, is Kerr-McGee’s deepest development to date in 5,300 ft of water on Garden Banks block 877. Red Hawk started production from the first of its two subsea wells 24 months after sanctioning.

Doreen Chin, Aker Kværner, and Kazuioshi Minami, Petrobras will chair the Monday afternoon flow assurance program. This session will address hydrate formation, management, prevention, and removal, as well as subsea flow assurance and real-time monitoring.

The design and model testing for frontier locations program co-chaired by Dave Barton, KBR, and Tom Miller, Unocal Corp, will run concurrently. The potential to find large oil and gas fields lies in the offshore frontiers. Papers are expected to examine extreme waves and impact loads, hydrodynamics with CFD, extreme TLP response, explosion loading, and ISO and API seismic design guidelines. In addition, B. Peng, J. Ray McDermott Engineering, will presentNonlinear dynamic soil/oil-structure interaction analysis of a deepwater platform for ductility level earthquakes. A discussion on Sakhalin II offshore facilities, which will look at structural platform solutions for seismic arctic environments will wrap up the session.

Deepwater offshore loading is a hot topic. Co-chaired by Peter Lovie, American Shuttle Tankers LLC, and Olav Wiik, Teekay Naion Shuttle Tankers Association, Tuesday morning’s session will look at different ways to load and offload oil. A paper of interest from P. Jean, Single Buoy Moorings Inc., will look atFailure of chains by bending on deepwater mooring systems.

Early fatigue failure of a chain stopper resulted in the loss of the catenary anchor leg mooring buoy offshore West Africa. SBM studied the bending fatigue failure mechanism and redesigned the top chain segment size and the hawse connection. It now includes a connecting arm with low-friction bearings that combines both pitch and roll articulations. The long rod connecting the chain to the buoy provides the lever arm and flexibility required to minimize bending movements in the chain.

On Tuesday afternoon catch the potentially controversial Deepwater Oil and Associated Gas Transportation program. Spawned from last year’s CNG breakfast, most of the papers will address CNG and the design codes most shipping company’s follow. However, the US Coast Guard supports a more stringent code. Included in the discussion will be a paper from FMC Energy Systems on its smaller and lighter gas-to-liquid conversion process and papers on alternative associated gas transportation and LNG risk issues.

Running concurrently will be a general session, Best Practices in Local Content Initiatives. Roger Tissot, director, petroleum risk manager, Markets and Countries Group, PFC Energy, will serve as moderator and Bob Daniels, senior vice president, E&P, Anadarko and John Erik Richardson, group executive vice president, Aker Kvaerner Group, will serve as panelists.