Though 2009 was marked with a global economic recession, attendance at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston was the second largest in OTC’s 40-year history.
According to Don Vardeman, 2009 OTC chairman, “2009’s attendance levels underscore that in a downturn, energy professionals come to OTC to learn about technologies and innovative approaches to reduce their costs and improve performance. OTC is known for presenting new and proven technologies that will help companies find and produce more oil and gas in deeper waters, and for sharing lessons learned on global projects that advance the offshore industry.”
This year’s conference should pull in higher attendance numbers as the recession seems to have leveled, if not improved slightly.
OTC.10 will be held May 3-6, 2010, at Reliant Center and Reliant Arena in Houston. The event covers state-of-the-art technology for offshore drilling, exploration, production, and environmental protection.
Technical program
The OTC.10 technical program focuses on technical, business, and regulatory issues in the oil and gas industry with an emphasis on the wider spectrum of energy sources and global reach.
The technical program papers and special events highlighted below are just a sampling of the overall conference and are not intended to be all inclusive. OTC’s technical program and schedule are available atwww.otcnet.org/2010.
General Sessions will kick off the morning and afternoon technical programs each day. On Monday, the panel will discuss Changing the Game Bit by Bit. The session will be moderated by Bob Fryklund, IHS, and Jim Demarest, Noble. The afternoon session will discuss a paper by Sandeep Khurana, Devon Energy Corp., Jobs and the Economy: How the Oil and Gas Industry is Creating Jobs, Leading the Economy, and Impacting Consumers.
Tuesday morning’s panel will look at the IOC Perspective of the Upstream Business in Brazil. On this panel are Joao De Luca of the Institute Brasileiro de Petroleo and Alvaro Negrai from Repsol. The afternoon General Session Panel will ask, What is the Right Global Energy Mix? Desired Transition Pathways to an Affordable and Secure Energy Future. The session will be chaired by Ahmed Hashmi, BP, and Gamal Hassan, Baker Hughes.
First on the schedule for Wednesday morning is a panel session to discuss paper, Burst! What is it? Panelist from Det Norsk Veritas, Carl Langner & Associates, National University of Singapore, and Stress Engineering Services will talk about J.G Bomba’s (Technip) paper on burst pressure requirements in pipeline and riser design. After lunch, a panel will address Social and Environmental Performance Risks in International Development Projects: From Soft Awareness to Hard Management. This discussion centers on a joint paper from CRA International and Snethkamp & Associates.
The final morning of OTC will open with a discussion related to an Agip KCO paper, Caspian Sea Developments. The final panel session, Thursday afternoon, concerns a Nautilus Offshore Co. paper, Surface BOP Technology: State of the Art and Future Opportunities in Deep Water.
Project profiles
Case studies and updates on the latest deepwater projects historically are well attended technical sessions. The first of these sessions will be held Monday morning. Thunder Horse and Atlantis 1: Lessons Learned from Frontier Deepwater Developments will be chaired by representatives from Kellogg Brown & Root and BP. Papers presented during this session will include general information about the development of these Gulf of Mexico projects as well as materials and collaboration challenges, riser performance during extreme events, and start-up successes and challenges.
The Thunder Horse and Atlantis project discussion continues Monday afternoon. Topics include future challenges, reservoir management, deepwater completions, and two approaches to tackling subsea imaging.
The Thunder Horse field is in 6,050 ft (1,844 m) of water on Mississippi Canyon blocks 776, 777, and 778. Thunder Horse is believed to be the deepest and largest oil and gas field discovered in the GoM. The fields are tied back to theThunder Horse production, drilling, and quarters platform which is one of the largest moored semisubmersibles platforms in the world. BP operates Thunder Horse with 75% interest and ExxonMobil holds the remaining 25% interest.
Likewise, Atlantis is in the GoM and operated by BP. The field is in Green Canyon block 699 in 7,070 ft (2,155 m) of water. The development includes 16 producing wells and four injectors. The world’s deepest moored semisubmersible production platform is on the field. BP holds a 56% interest in the field with BHP Billiton holding the remaining 44% interest.
Running concurrently on Tuesday morning are the AKPO project and the ATP Mirage project technical sessions. The AKPO project papers include seven presentations from Total. Topics include a project overview, development drilling, subsea production system, umbilicals and risers, FPSO, and start-up challenges.
AKPO is offshore Nigeria in about 4,000 ft (1,219 m) of water. The development includes 22 production wells, 20 water injection wells, and two gas injection wells tied back to an FPSO. Total operates AKPO with 24% interest. Partners are CNOOC (45%), Petrobras (16%), NNPC (10%), and Sapetro (5%).
The ATP Mirage project presentation includes papers about export pipelines, the multi-column and deep-draft floating platform, mooring design, development plans, riser system, and developing small deepwater fields.
The Mirage project is on Mississippi Canyon block 941 in about 3,800 ft (1,158 m) of water. Mirage is being jointly developed with the Morgus field. ATP operates the Mirage field with 25% interest, and Statoil owns the remaining 75% interest.The Azurite field will be discussed on Tuesday afternoon. The field is on the Mer Profonde Sud block offshore the Republic of the Congo. It is in the Lower Congo basin and is estimated to contain 75 MMboe of recoverable reserves.
Six oil producing subsea wells as well as three water injectors tied to an FDPSO came onstream on Aug. 10, 2009, and peak production is expected to hit 40,000 b/d.
Murphy Oil serves as operator and has 50% working interest, PA Resources AB has 35% interest, and SNPC holds 15% interest.
On Wednesday morning, Shell’s Perdido development will be the topic of discussion as what is considered the world’s first ultra deepwater drilling and production facility. Paper presentations will include an overview of the project, subsea process engineering and subsea and flowline systems, a look at Great White WM12 reservoir and Silvertip M. Frio field development, spar and moorings, and the export connection.
Perdido oil and gas spar production facility is on Alaminos Canyon block 857. Perdido boasts the deepest oil development, the deepest drilling and production platform, and has the deepest subsea well in the world. The hub will produce from three fields – Great White, Silvertip, and Tobago in about 8,000 ft (2,438 m) of water. Shell operates the project with 35% interest. Partners are BP (27.5%) and Chevron (37.5%).
The last project session is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. The BC-10 project technical session will explore the subsurface challenges, deepwater extended-reach wells, heavy oil surface facility, subsea hardware and artificial lift systems, flowline and riser systems, and high-voltage power umbilical design.
The BC-10 project, also known as Parque das Conchas, includes five fields – Ostra, Abalone, Argonauta B-West, Argonauta O-North, and Nautilus. BC-10 is in the Campos basin off Espirito Santo, Brazil, in about 5,500 ft (1,676 m) of water.
The field was developed in two phases by 13 wells tied back to theEspirito Santo FPSO.
FPSOEspírito Santo serves BC-10 production. The BC-10 project technical session is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Shell operates the project with 50% working interest along with Petrobras (35%) and ONGC (15%).
Alternatives
Alternative energy sources such as offshore wind energy, ocean wave energy, ocean thermal energy conversion, and gas hydrates are among the technical session topics scheduled.
On Monday afternoon, LNG 2010 will kick off the alternative energy sessions. Topics include FLNG design issues and liquefaction plants, LNG loading risks, converting LNG carriers for FLNG applications, risk-based verifications, new tank containment systems, and fluid vaporizers for LNG regassification vessels and FSRUs.
Tuesday morning’s technical session is Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. Seven papers will cover topics including efficiency challenges, co-producing ammonia and desalinated water, capacity and resource assessment of southeastern Florida, heat exchangers, power plants, and system integration and implementation.
The discussion continues Wednesday morning with a technical session titled, Ocean Wave and Thermal Energy Generation and Transportation. Economics, OTEC heat exchangers, model testing, the PG&E WaveConnect Project, subsea power cable designs, synthesis gas using solar concentrator photovoltaics and high-temperature co-electrolysis of CO2 and H2O, and certification of marine energy converters will be discussed.
Concurrently, offshore wind energy papers will be presented on Wednesday morning. Presenters will discuss OWT support structures, offshore wind turbine facilities, hurricane risks to offshore wind turbines, load extrapolation methods, load predictions for a spar-supported wind turbine, qualifying a semisubmersible as a wind turbine foundation, and an update on the Cape Wind project.
According to API, gas hydrates, which are natural gas and water frozen together into a solid substance, are common in arctic permafrost regions and in sediments in the ocean’s deep waters. Research is under way to better understand this vast, untapped resource: how natural gas hydrates form, where they are located, and how they could be used as a future source of natural gas.
Four technical sessions are scheduled to discuss gas hydrates research. The first session will be held Wednesday morning: Gas Hydrates I: Discovery of Rich Gas Hydrate Accumulations in Sand Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico. Five of the seven papers will discuss the Gulf of Mexico Joint Industry Project Leg II results, and one paper will look at Seismic Modeling for a Gas Hydrate and Free Gas Mix System in Green Canyon block 955.
Continuing on Wednesday afternoon, the Gas Hydrates II: Resource Evaluation and Production Estimates technical session features seven papers. Topics include evaluations of recently discovered hydrates in the GoM, a look at gas hydrates in the Shenhu Area in the northern South China Sea, the economics of depressurization-induced gas production, and three papers about methane hydrates in the eastern Nankai Trough.
On Thursday morning, the Gas Hydrates III: Sampling, Well Design, and Geomechanical Analysis technical session will feature vertical drilling in the Nankai-Trough Seismogenic Zone. Other papers will discuss pressure coring in the GoM, well design requirements, heat transfer and wellbore stability in South Korea, sloping oceanic hydrate deposits related to thermal loading and production activities, a study for estimation of seabed stratum deformation, and the Effect of Confining Pressure on Triaxial Compressive Properties of Artificial Methane Hydrate-Bearing Sediments.
Gas Hydrates IV: Laboratory, Simulation, and Fundamental Studies will conclude the gas hydrates technical sessions on Thursday afternoon. Topics include thermal stimulation with hot water injection, depressurization-induced gas production from methane hydrate cores, hydrate formation in gas-rich marine sediment, seismic wave velocities, methane-hydrate-bearing models, microscale modeling of methane hydrate formations, and gas hydrate capillary pressure and relative permeability.
Station keeping
Offshore vessels must maintain their station despite changes in the wind, waves, and currents. Thus station keeping is vital to successful exploration and production. The Foundations and Anchors technical session on Monday afternoon includes papers on Potential Conservatism in Foundation Design for Offshore Platform Assessment, New API Recommended Practice for Geotechnical Engineering, Predicting Consolidation Settlement in Soft Clay, Consolidation around Seabed Pipelines, Use of Normalized Sheer Strength Concepts for Clay from the Gulf of Guinea, and Installation of Two Prototypes Deep-Penetrating Anchors at the Gjøa field in the North Sea.
Station keeping discussions will continue on Thursday morning with the Fiber Moorings: Recent Experiences and Research technical session. Topics to be discussed include API RP 2SM, polyester rope mooring systems, fiber ropes, polyester rope life cycle management, comparison of Piecewise Linear Stiffness vs. Non-linear Stiffness with Integrated Permanent Rope Elongation, and the impact of splinters on polyester rope’s strength.
The mooring papers conclude on Thursday afternoon with a Mooring System Integrity technical session. Papers topics include connector technology, long-term operational experience, anchor leg system integrity, mooring integrity, mooring shackles, mooring IMMR plan, and MDU inspection.
Metocean conditions
OTC.10 will also hold two technical sessions on metocean conditions, covering recent hindcasts and future updates on hurricanes. The Tuesday morning session, Metocean I: Hurricanes, Cyclones, and Tropical Storms – Recent Hindcasts and Updated Forecasts, will feature a hindcast of Hurricane Ike, hurricane design criteria for LNG developments, modeling future GoM hurricane activity based on climate variability, learning from Western Australia’s LNG developments, risk assessment using semisubmersibles off Western Australia, and hurricanes in loop currents.
Continuing after lunch, Metocean II: Metocean Modeling, Measurements, and Maxima topical session will look at loop currents, the GoM’s HYCOM, inertial current forecast system, topographic Rossby waves along the Sigsbee Escarpment, and metocean data.
Technical advances around the world
The following programs highlight technological advancements that reduce time and, thus money:
Monday 9:30 am-noon
- Advances in Flexible Riser Technology
- Drilling Technology
- Advances in Offshore Materials Technology.
Monday 2:00-4:30 pm
- Advances in Deepwater Riser Technology
- Innovative Drilling Technology
- Subsea Process Technology.
Tuesday 9:30 am-noon
- Advances in Seafloor Imaging Applications of Multibean Backscatter.
Tuesday 2:00-4:30 pm
- Well Completion Technology.
Thursday 9:30 am-noon
- Deepwater Technology
- Topsides Technology.
Thursday 2:00-4:30 pm
- Innovative Improved Oil Recovery Technology.
Awards
Annually, OTC recognizes innovative technologies with the Spotlight on New Technology Award. According to OTC, the award is open only to OTC exhibitors and is designed to showcase the latest and most advanced technologies that are leading the industry into the future.
Aside from exhibiting at the show, participants must meet the following criteria outlined by OTC:
- 1. New: Technology must be less than two years old from the time it was introduced to the marketplace or announced or advertised in a conference, press release, or trade journal.
- 2. Innovative: The technology must be original, groundbreaking, and capable of revolutionizing the offshore E&P industry.
- 3. Proven: The technology must be proven, either through full-scale application or successful prototype testing.
- 4. Broad interest: The technology must have broad interest and appeal across the industry.
- 5. Significant impact: The technology must provide significant benefits beyond existing technologies.
Spotlight award winners were announced in March after the press deadline. Please go to OTCnet.org/2010 to view this year’s winners.
In addition, OTC has announced that the 27th annual Best Mechanical Engineering Achievement Award (BMEA) is now open exclusively to OTC.10 exhibitors. This award recognizes a product, device, or system displayed at OTC that best reflects innovation and practical use of mechanical engineering in solving problems, improving design, or maximizing performance within the energy industry. The American Society of Mechanic Engineers’ International Petroleum Technology Institute will present the BMEA.
Events and activities
Special events and meal presentations will be held daily. All of the events below require separate tickets.
On Monday, OTC attendees can chose from two breakfasts held from 7:30 – 9:00 am. Chris Ross, vice president, CRA, will tackle the first topical breakfast, The Shape of the Industry to Come: Changing Roles and Responsibilities. Running concurrently is an Ethics breakfast.
There are four topical luncheons on Monday:
- 1. Geoscientists without Boarders: Bringing Geoscience and Engineering Technology from the energy Industry to Humanitarian Needs
- 2. Thunder Horse and Atlantis Deepwater Frontier Developments in the GoM
- 3. Energy Myths and Realities
- 4. Upstream Challenges and Plans.
Tuesday kicks off the industry breakfasts organized by OTC and the US Department of Commerce. According to OTC, the breakfasts will offer expert views on doing business in emerging areas of interest for the oil and gas industry. Tuesday’s Industry Breakfast will focus on Columbia’s Oil and Gas Policy and Opportunities for Trade and Investment in its Oil and Gas Sector.
The two topical breakfast choices on Tuesday include Ocean Renewable Energy and Shell’s Offshore Global Strategy and Portfolio.
At 12:15 p.m. is the Awards Luncheon, where OTC recognizes outstanding achievements in the offshore E&P industry by honoring an individual and organization or company with an OTC Distinguished Achievement Award. Charles D. Davidson, chairman and CEO of Noble Energy, will give the keynote address.
In early March, OTC announced that it will present its 2010 Distinguished Achievement Awards to Hugh Elkins for important advances in subsea drilling technology, and to the Independence Hub for the coordinated solution to accessing ultra deepwater reserves.
Elkins will receive the OTC Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals for his contributions in more than 53 years in the offshore oil industry. Elkins served as director of business development for National Oilwell Varco before his retirement, and previously served more than 20 years in executive engineering posts at Hydril. Elkins developed the industry standard of six foot-radius technology for subsea wellhead guide bases and blowout preventer stack guide frames, which permitted industry interchangeability of subsea equipment.
OTC’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Companies, Organizations, and Institutions recognizes the record-setting Independence Hub for its innovative collaboration in creating a coordinated infrastructure solution that provided access to ultra deepwater reserves that previously were economically unfeasible. Natural gas from the project represents a 10% increase in the supply from the Gulf of Mexico. The award will be presented to Anadarko Petroleum and Enterprise Field Services for the project.
OTC Night at the Ballpark offers OTC attendees an opportunity to watch the Houston Astros play baseball versus the Arizona Diamondbacks at Minute Maid Park. First pitch is at 7:00 pm. Discounted tickets will be available to purchase at OTC and online.
Wednesday’s industry breakfast topic is: Egypt: Oil and Gas Policy and Opportunities.” Running concurrently are two topical breakfasts – OTEC and Sustaining Technology.
The Next Wave, a program for young professionals will be held Wednesday from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. According to OTC, the 2010 event will focus on how the industry’s “crests and troughs” can affect your long-term career. Afternoon breakout sessions give attendees the chance to discuss topics such as career paths, geopolitical challenges, and “the big crew change.” Tim Probert, president, global business lines, and chief health, safety and environment officer, Halliburton, will give the keynote address.
Five topical luncheons on Wednesday include:
- 1. The Silver Lining of a Recession
- 2. Future of Oil Reserves
- 3. Opportunities and Challenges for Deepwater
- 4. Are Humans at Fault for More and Stronger Offshore Hurricanes?
- 5. Step Ahead in the Carbon Sequestration Program.
Finish the day with a new OTC event – watch the Houston Dynamo play soccer. The Houston Dynamo is a major league soccer team that plays at Robertson Stadium on the University of Houston campus. Discounted tickets will be available for purchase at OTC and online.
The final day of OTC will start with an industry breakfast focus on Offshore New Zealand and Western Australia: Oil and Gas Policy, Investment, and Trade Opportunities. Or, you may choose one of the two topical breakfasts – Longhorn Project, or Development Strategy and Opportunities of China Offshore Construction Business Under global Financial Crisis.
The MMS SAFE Awards Luncheon will start at noon and run through 2:00 pm on Thursday. According to OTC, the MMS will present its Corporate Leadership Awards to outstanding individuals whose exceptional performance has raised the bar for safety achievement, improved environmental protection, enhanced resource recovery and conservation, or inspired innovation and outstanding performance by others.
Running concurrently, topical luncheon topics include:
- Caspian Sea Energy Developments
- Conventional Offshore Oil and Gas Enters it Twilight Years
- US Climate Change Policy: Facing Up To Costs and Sacrifices.
The closing session begins at 4:00 pm. The reception will be held at Café on the Park on the second level of Reliant Center. No ticket is required.
