SPE Annual Caspian Technical Conference and Exhibition: High Level Panel Target Hot Topics
This year’s SPE Annual Caspian Technical Conference and Exhibition—taking place 4–6 November in Baku, Azerbaijan—will feature three high-level panel sessions addressing the most topical trends, challenges and opportunities facing the oil and gas industry in the Caspian.
The three panel sessions have the confirmed participation of some of the region’s industry leaders, drawn from government, operators, service providers, advisory firms, and energy research companies, including SOCAR, BP, ExxonMobil, Schlumberger, TOTAL and TANAP.
The Caspian region is well-positioned to act as a key supplier of natural gas to Turkey and Europe, its stable geopolitical environment offering highly sought-after security of supply too. The first panel session, on gas development, will examine current and future sources of demand for Caspian gas, the main players in the value chain (both upstream and midstream) and the technical and commercial challenges that they face.
Large-scale oil and gas projects come with various risks – technical, execution and performance – attached. Yet addressing these can often boil down to getting a few critical items right early on. Risk identification and mitigation will be the topic of discussion for the second panel session, which will touch on some of these critical items – developing effective governance systems, addressing human dynamics that promote success across a project, and establishing project teams that will think critically about rapidly identifying and mitigating risk throughout the life of a project.
The oil and gas industry in the Caspian region suffers from the same talent problems that affect other resource-rich areas of the world to a greater or lesser extent. A lack of ‘home-grown’ graduates in the relevant disciplines can lead to companies falling back on using expatriate workers. The third and final panel session will provide first-hand insights into how international players, national companies and government agencies are working together to build national capability and technological expertise.
The prestigious Fairmont Hotel, Flame Towers in Baku is the venue for the conference and exhibition, with over 700 oil and gas industry professionals from IOCs and NOCs, as well as government representatives, service companies, scientists, and others expected to attend and contribute. The event is hosted by SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic), and co-hosted by BP. The two companies are also sharing chairing duties, with Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh, First Vice President, SOCAR and Martyn Smith, VP Reservoir Development, BP assuming the role. Other sponsors include Baker Hughes, Caspian Geophysical, Chevron, ENGIE, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, INPEX, Nobel Oil, Petronas, Schlumberger, Statoil, TCO and Total.
More information can be found at: www.spe.org/events/ctce/2015/
