The 18th international Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, hosted by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE) took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, July 6-11, 2008. Academics, industry R&D folks, and researchers from organizations including the US government gathered in Vancouver to share their work at a forum designed to promote technological progress and activities and facilitate international technology transfer and cooperation.

Because of the nature of the organization, the subject matter at ISOPE is pretty heavy: flow-induced vibration research, hydrodynamics, pipeline and riser technology, geotechnical challenges, FPSO and compliant structure performance, deepwater design analysis, composites and smart structures, and a host of other technical subjects.
This year’s conference included 450 peer-reviewed technical papers and 42 presentations. The conference also featured a number of interesting plenary sessions.

Into the Arctic

Estimates indicate up to 25% of the world’s remaining reserves lie in the Arctic, and that information has had an impact on the focus of industry research. Much of the content presented at this relatively obscure conference will become critically important as the search for oil and gas moves operations into areas where the world’s harshest conditions will have to be dealt with day to day.

The opening session, “Offshore and Arctic review,” took a look at some of the most critical challenges that affect Arctic operations.

Douglas Bancroft, director, Canadian ice service, from Environment Canada addressed the subject of Canada’s sea ice, noting that the 2006-2008 seasons brought with them some very unusual ice events. There was considerable ice movement, Bancroft said, and it had an affect not only on exploration and shipping, but on scientific studies and Canadian Coast Guard activity levels.

Bancroft presented satellite imagery that showed how climate change is dramatically altering ice movement and suggested that temperature variations might well create ice conditions that are significantly different from those that have been dealt with historically.

Shawn Hurley of Petro-Canada talked about ice conditions as well. Part of Hurley’s presentation examined the challenges ice introduces for production systems. Petro-Canada, which has interest in the three producing fields offshore Newfoundland (Hibernia, Terra Nova, and White Rose), also has 23.9% interest in the Hebron field, for which the Canadian government expects construction to begin as early as 2010.

If additional developments are going to move ahead, there will have to be considerable investment in technology to allow operators to contend with the extremely harsh conditions in this region.

According to Hurley, Petro-Canada has a fair-sized drilling program planned and will be moving forward with some deepwater exploration drilling at the end of this season or the beginning of next year.

In a more general presentation, Dong S. Kim of Shell Global Solutions International went beyond the Arctic with a talk about the status of global production. In a speech titled “Beyond Easy Oil,” Kim talked about how the world is producing oil and gas and how that approach needs to change.

Kim enumerated what he called “three hard truths” about the world’s use of energy:
1. There are more people in the world using more energy.
2. Though reserves are plentiful, there is no more easy oil.
3. There are environmental challenges the industry must face in exploring for and producing hydrocarbons.

Though Kim’s observations are not unique, they are issues that are becoming increasingly important to many in the oil and gas industry.

This “trilemma,” as Kim called it, is critical because although there has been significant investment over the years in alternative sources of energy, particularly renewables, the industrial world still relies predominantly on oil and gas. And for the foreseeable future, Kim said, that is not going to change.

According to Kim, much of the world’s future hydrocarbon demands will be met by new discoveries, better technologies for producing unconventional oil, and new techniques for enhancing oil recovery.

In short, the industry will have to adapt, and it will have to do so quickly. “The way we produce and use energy today is not sustainable,” Kim said.

Integrated technology solutions will be the biggest contributor to change, according to Kim, with intelligent operations and “smart fields” playing a key role.

The biggest change, Kim said, will have to come from within the oil and gas industry. “We are the ones to make our industry grow.”

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