Highlights

February 2010

OGP’s Arctic Co-ordination Task Force, which reports directly to the Management Committee on outstanding Arctic-related issues, met in Washington, DC on 19-20 January. API was the host.

As Chair Peter Velez noted, one of the main aims of the meeting in North America was to attract new participants as well as outside experts. In addition to API, which played a highly active role throughout, the meeting drew involvement from the Canadian upstream association, CAPP and presentations from the US Minerals Management Service – Arctic Oil Spill Response Research, the Arctic Council’s Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Working Group and the US Navy, which was represented by the Deputy Director of the Task Force Climate Change office of the Oceanographer.

Others presenting included Hans Kristian Olsen, Managing Director of Nunaoil – OGP’s member company from Greenland. Hans Kristian provided a first-hand perspective of the environmental, technical and social challenges of upstream activities in the Arctic.

One of the main topics of discussion was the Barents 2020 initiative, which was started by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry to harmonise standards in the Barents Sea between Russia and Norway. Since last year, OGP has been involved in helping to identity and advance priorities for the initiative.

Mitch Winkler of Shell explained how this work could be streamlined and enhanced by the involvement of OGP’s Standards Committee, which in turn could lead to greater interest in Arctic developments by the global standards organisation, ISO.

More widely, the ACTF agreed to brief each of OGP’s standing committee chairs about Barents 2020 and possible opportunities to become involved in helping to frame future Arctic developments in the Barents Sea itself and beyond.

The full minutes of the ACTF Washington meeting, including the presentations given and a timeline that features forthcoming Arctic-related events, are available on the OGP members’ website.

Abby Findlay

February 2010

Following a successful review in Rijswijk, the Netherlands on 26 January, the Safety Data Subcommittee has issued a ‘way forward’ highlighting seven action plans with the ultimate aim of improving safety performance and so reducing upstream fatalities.

These plans cover:

Roll out of industry rules

Reporting of industry rules for recording fatalities, including historical information

Reporting of the root causes of fatalities

A proposal to set up a Safety Committee Competency Task Force

An analysis of top tools for gathering fatality data

Liaison with the Asset Integrity Task Force on dangerous gases and links to fatalities

Preparation of an awareness-raising communications pack on the OGP Safety Zone

For more information on the workshop and its recommendations, contact: stewart.fraser@ogp.org.uk.

Stewart Fraser

February 2010

At its inception in 2009, IPIECA’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Task Force, on which sit the members of the OGP Emissions Reduction & Energy Efficiency Network, defined three main workstreams: energy efficiency, flaring & venting and carbon capture & sequestration (CCS).

To tackle the first of these, on 26 January IPIECA held a workshop in Houston entitled ‘Managing greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency’.

OGP Environment Manager Abby Findlay, who attended on behalf of the Association, joined some 55 other delegates who participated in the event. Specialist speakers included representatives from the US Environmental Protection Agency, Solomon Associates, the Petroleum Association of Japan, the International Standards Organization and CONCAWE as well as experts from member companies.

Abby reports that ‘The sessions proved very valuable, tackling issues such as energy management systems, energy and emissions benchmarking, international standards and best practices for improving energy efficiency.’

The event was followed up by a session for the GHG Emissions Task Force. This enabled members to discuss what was learned in the workshop and to build a workplan on that foundation. Participants agreed that key areas to address should include development of ISO-based energy management system guidelines; collection of relevant best practices and tools; and the launch of a scoping study to look into upstream energy and emissions benchmarking.

The Houston meeting also saw the handover of the Chair’s responsibilities from Gordon-Reid Smith of BP to Hadrien Labeyrie of Total.

To find out more about the Houston event, which was hosted by BP, visit: www.ipieca.org and click on ‘Climate Change’ under the ‘Focus Areas’ heading, or contact the Climate Change Working Group Project Manager, Robert Siveter:

robert.siveter@ipieca.org

February 2010

OGP’s Management Committee gathered in Brussels on 10 February for their annual meeting in Europe’s capital. As usual, this was followed by a dinner that this year included guests from the European Commission, the Council, the diplomatic corps and the secretaries general of other European energy associations in Brussels.

‘This dinner is kept small to encourage intensive debate stimulated by different questions that guests at each table are asked to discuss,’ says OGP Director EU Affairs Beate Raabe. ‘This format has proven very successful over a number of years.’

This year’s topics covered:

The extent to which EU policy could stimulate upstream investment in Europe and beyond

Ways to integrate upstream challenges such as Arctic E&P, deep water and unconventional oil and gas into EU R&D programmes that mainly focus on low-carbon technology

Challenges to European security of supply

Implications for the oil and gas industry of the EU’s Emissions Trading Directive, which calls for reductions in emissions of 21%

The lack of understanding about gas’s vital role in the EU’s plans for a lower-carbon economy

Earlier in the day, the MC’s meeting itself included a report on the outcome of last year’s European elections and the composition of the new Commission, which had been confirmed by the European Parliament the previous day. An overview of energy-related provisions of the Lisbon Treaty also featured.

A review of OGP’s EU activities focused on the EU Committee’s work programme for the first half of the year. Among the challenges: development of a communication strategy to inform political leaders about the essential role for gas in achieving a lower carbon energy future.

Charles Bowen

February 2010

Mike Surkein of ExxonMobil has been chosen as the new Chair of OGP’s Materials Subcommittee, which reports to the Standards Committee. He comes to the post with almost 29 years of experience as a corrosion/materials specialist with a background in corrosion control, cathodic protection, coatings and linings, pipe coatings and material selection.

In his current role with ExxonMobil, Mike addresses technical and business issues critical to materials/corrosion and influences technology development within the discipline. He is also active in the wider international community and is responsible for over 35 technical papers and presentations.

Commenting on his new role at OGP (where he is also Vice-Chair of the Coatings Work Group), Mike says his main goal ‘is to help assist the committee to influence the oil and gas industry to endorse standardised practices. Experience tells us that standardisation of material selection practices will lead to improvements with equipment design and fabrication – leading to greater integrity and higher quality.’

Alf Reidar Johansen

February 2010

As part of a wider effort to help lawmakers gain a better understanding of oil and gas issues, OGP and EUROPIA held a workshop for EU parliamentary assistants on 29 January.

The meeting covered a broad range of topics including the basics of petroleum geology, drilling techniques, refining, security of supply, carbon capture and storage, the environment and access to resources.

‘It was a very worthwhile exercise,’ says OGP Director EU Affairs Beate Raabe. ‘It gave us the opportunity to become better acquainted with the people who advise Europe’s lawmakers and gave the assistants new insights into the achievements and challenges of the region’s oil and gas sector.’

Beate Raabe

February 2010

Richard Wylde, Chair of OGP’s Surveying & Positioning (S&P) Committee, flew the flag for the Association and its most recent discipline at the SMi E&P Information & Data Management Conference in London earlier this month.

Richard jointly presented a paper with Jill Lewis, Chair of the SEG Technical Standards Committee, on recent revisions in positioning and geophysical data exchange standards and best practice guidance.

It was a receptive audience, Richard says. ‘A common issue, raised without prompting, concerned co-ordinate reference system issues with data and the need for more companies to adopt the OGP-hosted EPSG Geodetic parameter Dataset in all their activities and software.’

For more information about the recently-presented paper in particular or S&P in general, contact Richard through Abby Findlay:

abby.findlay@ogp.org.uk.

Abby Findlay

February 2010

Raphael Vermeir, Chair of OGP’s Management Committee, led the upstream discussion at the Energy Institute’s annual IP Week in London.

Speaking on 17 February before an audience of oil and gas industry managers, strategists, investment specialists, exploratists and geologists, Raphael reminded participants of their last get-together, which he also chaired.

‘Think back to the state the world – and our industry – was in then,’ he said. ‘The economy seemed to be in freefall. Demand for oil and gas – which had been soaring only months before – was plummeting as consumers tightened their belts and industrial output fell.

‘Panic was virtually endemic. But not in the upstream oil and gas industry.

‘No matter what happened,’ he said, ‘we knew that in 10 or 15 years’ time, the world would still need the oil and gas that it’s our responsibility to find and produce. We couldn’t let a little thing like global economic meltdown stand in our way. And we didn’t.’

However, Raphael acknowledged, things were not easy. ‘Like every industry, we suffered.’

‘And we’re still coping with tightened budgets and other constraints. Not to mention redundancies. Many of our friends and colleagues who were with us at IP Week last year are absent now. But on the whole, I’m proud to say that during a year that shook the world, our industry never lost sight of its long-term targets and obligations.’

Or shirked important issues. Among the most urgent of these, Raphael told the IP gathering, was asset integrity. This, he said, is ‘intrinsically linked with the wider issues of health, safety and the environment, all of which are part of OGP’s core mission.’

‘It’s been among our industry’s greatest accomplishments that we have managed to prolong the lives of platforms and other facilities well beyond their originally planned shut down dates.

‘It’s also one of our greatest vulnerabilities,’ he added. ‘Aging assets – on which we have repeatedly bolted new capacity and technology – need particular attention and care to make certain they operate safely.

‘But upstream assets aren’t the only thing that’s aging,’ Raphael continued. ‘There are quite a few greying heads in this room. My own included. Wisdom and experience are valued in our industry. Yet as people age and retire, there’s a distinct danger of losing much valuable knowledge – partly because there’s a shortage of younger people to receive it.

‘Recruitment of new talent to our industry is one of the greatest challenges we face. And by “we” I don’t just mean the upstream sector. I mean the entire world.’

Because come what may, Raphael argued, the world will continue to need more oil – and particularly more gas. And that won’t happen without the people to find and produce it.

How do we recruit young talent to what the media have long insisted is a sunset industry?

‘Admittedly, it’s going to be a struggle. For years, the NGOs and the press have had the field pretty much to themselves when it comes to global warming. And the supposed environmental evils of oil and gas exploration, production and use. As an industry – collectively and as individual companies – we’ve let some highly misleading but emotionally impactful arguments go largely unchallenged.

‘That has to change,’ he said. ‘We have to become more aggressive in getting our very sound arguments across. Particularly since the false notion of oil and gas obsolescence has become entrenched in public thinking and policy-making.’

Fortunately, we have the ammunition, Raphael said.

Citing a presentation at OGP’s global meeting in Paris last November (see Highlights, December 2009), Raphael quoted from Didier Houssin, the International Energy Agency’s Director of Energy Markets and Security, who stressed that the world will continue to rely on natural gas in particular as part of the development of a lower carbon economy.

‘Even the president of the WorldWatch Institute, a Washington think tank that has done much to promote renewables, calls developments in finding and extracting unconventional gas “a real breakthrough”’.

Raphael went on to introduce a programme that included presentations on deep water development, new frontier exploration, heavy oil, North Sea expansion and dispute resolution.

For more information, visit:

www.energyinst.org.uk.

Lloyd Slater

February 2010

As usual, to help members make the most of their travel time and budgets, OGP has scheduled a number of meetings before, during and after the AGM – which this year is on 15 April in Rio de Janeiro. And the AGM itself, of course, is being held in Rio to follow the SPE’s global HSE conference earlier that week.

The round of OGP meetings kick-off with a two-day Safety Committee session on 08-09 April.

The joint OGP/IPIECA Health Committee will meet on 15-16 April, as will the Geophysical HSSE Subcommittee and the joint OGP/IPIECA Biodiversity Working Group.

For more details about OGP’s Rio events, contact:

dianne.james@ogp.org.uk.

February 2010

IPIECA’s Ruth Romer has become the new Project Manager of the joint OGP/IPIECA Biodiversity Working Group. She succeeds Erica Dholoo, who has left IPIECA to work on biodiversity action plans for Hunt Oil in Peru.

Ruth, who has an environmental background, has been with IPIECA for 2½ years working on a range of issues from strategic planning to social responsibility. In addition to her biodiversity role, she will also project manage IPIECA’s Water Task Force.

Abby Findlay