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.
Wednesday morning�s program on the Troll field will look at the technology used and the challenges faced in producing and maintaining 115 subsea wells.
This session will focus on the challenges that international oil companies face in reconciling local content responsibilities with constraints related to technology, procurement, and human capital. The panel will discuss specific local content programs that have been successful as well as general ideas to improve the industry’s relationship with society.
Start Wednesday off with a journey 80 km offshore Norway. Here you’ll find the Troll field, a giant gas field underlain by an oil rim of variable thickness in about 300-355 m of water.
The Troll Project - New Technology and Lessons Learned program will start with an overview of the Troll field, which extends over four Norwegian blocks - 31/2, 31/3, 31/5, and 31/6 - and covers an area of 710 sq km. Other topics of discussion will include the oil zone, geosteering, oil drilling challenges, front-end and completion technology, the field environment, and the challenges of operating and maintaining the 115 subsea wells.
Wednesday afternoon, keep your blood pumping with Methane Hydrate Production: Famine to Feast! J. Dai, Schlumberger will complete the seven-paper program withRock physics models of gas hydrates and their implications in seismic detection. Dai will address shallow gas hydrates that are known to exist extensively in deepwater regions and permafrost areas. Gas hydrates is considered for both potential shallow hazards for drilling activities and potential alternative resources. 3D delineation of gas hydrate using seismic is essential for hazards prevention and resource estimation of gas hydrates. Dai will cover a description of the existing models and their validation with observed data with examples of 3D seismic delineation in GoM region.
A general session addressingDemographics in our industry - Addressing the upcoming personnel shortage will run concurrently on Wednesday afternoon. Eileen Campbell, vice president, Human Resources, Marathon Oil Corp., will serve as moderator.
Finish off the week with a look at Hurricane Ivan, which more than left its mark on the Gulf of Mexico. The Ivan the terrible program participants will look at the aging infrastructure in the GoM, operator experiences during the storm, pipeline damage and inspection, and hindcast study of winds, waves, and currents. The long-range effects of the giant storm may be more far-reaching than at first suspected.
The Holstein spar design challenges and innovations program will also run Thursday morning. BP brought Holstein online Dec. 9, 2004. Holstein is the largest truss spar in the world. At peak production, the facility will produce more than 100,000 b/d and 90 MMcf.
Representatives from Technip Offshore will address the top tension riser and dry tree system, the mating of the hard tank and truss, the offloading of the spar truss section, and Holstein’s hard tank strake design. R. Billings of Billings Metallurgical Services Inc. will discuss the testing and analysis of the combo riser.
2005 OTC facts
Theme: OTC .05: A Sea of Resources - An Ocean of Knowledge
Where: Reliant Center at Reliant Park, Houston
When: May 2-5, 2005
Who: Engineers, technicians, executives, operators, scientists, and managers from more than 110 nations, representing a variety of fields in the offshore industry.
Founding Date: 1969
Projected statistics:
• Exhibiting companies: 2,120, representing 27 countries
• Exhibit new sq ft: 398,000 projected
• Attendance: 50,000+, representing 110 countries
• Technical presentations: 318+
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.OTCnet.org
OTC recognized 14 recipients for the Spotlight on New Technology program
• AGR Subsea - RMR Riserless Mud Recovery System - A dual gradient tophole drilling system
• Aker Kværner - Stepped Diameter Tendon
• Cameron Division of Cooper Cameron Corp. - The Cameron DC All-Electric Subsea Production System
• Expro International Group PLC - 15k Subsea Safety System
• Expro International Group PLC - CaTS (Cableless Telemetry System)
• Halliburton’s Energy Services Group - PoroFlex Variable Reach Annular Barrier tool
• KROHNE Inc. - Altosonic III Ultrasonic Flowmeter for custody transfer
• Kværner Oilfield Products - Carbon Fibre Rod utilization within subsea umbilicals for axial stiffness enhancement
• Mustang Engineering - LNG Smart Vaporization
• Norse Cutting & Abandonment - Abrasive Waterjet Cutting (AWJC) system for severing multistring conductors below seabed
• ProPure AS - C100 H2S Scavenger Mixer (offshore H2S removal)
• Schlumberger - PressureXpress pressure-while-logging service
• Shaffer, a Varco Co. - Continuous Circulation System (CCS)
• Weatherford International - Optical flowmeter
“In its second year, the Spotlight on New Technology program serves as a stage to highlight the most innovative and significant offshore developments during the year,” Rod Allan, OTC .05 chairman, says. “These recipients demonstrate the increasing technical edge that is required to explore and produce in ever-increasing water depths, and more remote and hostile environments. The products recognized in this year’s Spotlight program will help bring offshore development to new depths - depths that just a few years ago seemed impossible.”
Submissions for Spotlight on New Technology had to meet four criteria: new and innovative, proven, broad interest, and significant impact.
Winners are recognized on the exhibition floor and in the registration area at this year’s conference. The recipients also will be honored during a presentation on Monday, May 2, where Allan will present them with their awards.