Photo courtesy of Offshore Technology Conference
Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) opened in Houston on May 7 with a “Golden Anniversary” opening session: The Next 50 Years of Offshore Development. The session began with a keynote address by Arnaud Breuillac, president, Exploration & Production, Total. He covered how greenhouse gas emissions will continue to be a problem as more of the world moves into the middle class and energy consumption increases with increased mobility.
These concerns will see a decrease in demand for oil but natural gas will continue to grow in importance. Meeting electrical demand, including greater use of electric vehicles will focus upon low carbon electric generation, increased biofuels and increasing growth in carbon sinks to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere.
Total is embarking on a major effort to reduce CO2 emissions from exploration and production operations worldwide and is taking concrete actions for this reduction. Tackling CO2 emissions will depend upon the energy industry, policymakers and energy users.
Roger Jenkins, president and CEO of Murphy Oil Corp., followed with a discussion of the company’s efforts in the global offshore industry. He discussed how efficiencies in the offshore industry are allowing companies the size of Murphy to compete globally with the majors. Murphy’s original offshore investment occurred in 1952 and it continues to pursue offshore investments for value creation and free cash flow. He feels that the current low-cost structure of offshore will go away but now is a good time to pursue projects, and that the lack of competition from companies similar in size to Murphy has opened significant opportunities.
Jenkins continued discussing new technologies such as automated rig technology, offline work, peak shaving and lower carbon engines. He is expecting big data to help lower maintenance costs and improve safety operations.
Doug Pferdehirt, CEO of TechnipFMC, gave a service company’s perspective on the industry by beginning with the past by looking at the Club of Rome projections. These projections stated that we would be running out of oil by the year 1972. He pointed out that technological innovations such as shale, LNG and subsea production have made the domestic and global oil and gas industry more productive than ever before.
Malcolm Frank, executive vice president of strategy and marketing at Cognizant, finished the Golden Anniversary session by discussing the new technologies that will be evolving the oil and gas industry for the next 50 years, as virtual and augmented reality impact industrial training and smart infrastructure becomes more prevalent.