Technical Sessions
These exciting topics will be discussed in an open setting designed for optimal input from all participants:
Session 1: Scene Setting – Opening Session |
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Session Managers: John Cheesebrough, Pieter Kapteijn The fi rst decade of the 21st century has seen dramatic swings in oil and gas field developments not least with the contracting and supply industry reaching effective saturation in 2005. The industry is reliably advised by strategists and economists alike that the forecast worldwide oil demand will rise from the current 85MMbo pd to 105MMbopd by 2030. Indeed some argue this could be a conservative forecast. Recent major oil finds typified by the Campos basin, offshore Brazil, offshore Gulf of Mexico and the emergence of PSA agreements covering the onshore fi elds in Iraq has created an air of optimism within the oil industry, but such optimism is countered by the sobering conclusions of the forecasters. Existing and emerging production locations will continue to be influenced by political instability and consequently production insecurity. As prices rise “marginal” will no longer be marginal and technological squeezes will need to be applied to producing or declining fields. There is little doubt that in going forward, the industry will benefit from thoughtful refl ection on how development costs can be contained and schedules expedited. This SPE Forum provides an opportunity to interrogate and review the issues likely to influence stable progress to meeting the future oil supply requirements:
What needs to change? The fundamental issue to debate is “can, and if so how will the oil and gas industry become leaner, faster and more innovative” to keep pace with the world’s energy demands? |
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Session 2: Decision Making; Uncertainty Through Project Life Cycle |
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Session Managers: Sverre Tresselt, Azamat Ismagilov, Iain Percival When trying to accelerate the time to fi rst hydrocarbons, a natural requirement is the introduction of parallel work streams. In such a situation it becomes even more critical to understand the risks and uncertainties, their potential impact and the interdependencies between the various disciplines. It therefore seems vital from an early stage onwards to work in integrated teams as well as define the critical project parameters, their associated uncertainties and ways to reduce or manage these uncertainties over time. It is impossible to resolve all uncertainties upfront and many will remain through several decision gates and the operational phase, so the key is that everyone in the integrated team continues to be aware of the particular uncertainties and their progression. Continued awareness of the critical parameters and their mutual influence in a cross functional way enables proactive management of risks and opportunities, as well as drive practical implementation throughout the project life cycle. Absence of such mechanisms could cause delay, make the development miss out on opportunities or become exposed to downside risk. Whilst this is easily said, this session explores how it can be madeto work in practice. In addition to an integrated risk and opportunity approach, we will also explore whether it could be benefi cial to divert from traditional decision making, project management and work flow processes and move to adopting novel, more integrated methods. |
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Session 3: Key Health Safety and Environmental (HS&E) issues in a Fast-track Development |
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Session Managers: Willem Bloem, Colin Taylor, Anatoly Zolotukhin In all of our work in the Oil and Gas industry HS&E is of primary importance and we take maximum measures to ensure compliance with statutory, company and personal requirements to ensure the highest level of health, safety and environmental standards. However, in a global climate of changing attitudes and growing demands to reduce environmental footprints and improve safety performance, the concept of fast-track fi eld developments will necessitate re-examination of how HS&E matters are managed during project defi nition and execution as well as the subsequent operations and abandonment phases. This session will explore, among others, the impact of issues like compliance with Regulatory, Industry and Company Standards, the Political, Cultural and Societal Impact of HS&E Performance, the Impacts of changing HS&E requirements and the infl uence and management of the Corporate Image. |
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Session 4: Manage and Engage Internal and External Stakeholders |
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Session Managers: Adam Bott, Robin Mills, Steve Taylor One of the key risks to delivering fast-track production is the failure to deal effectively with stakeholders. Stakeholder management is the process of managing the expectations and relationship with anyone affected by or involved in a project, including (but not limited to) employees, management, shareholders, partners, regulatory authorities, government, national oil company, local community, customers, NGOs, contractors and suppliers. As the list of stakeholders grows outside those traditionally associated with E&P projects, how do we manage stakeholders to achieve the goal of Fast Track Production? Stakeholder initiated ‘non technical’ type issues can have a major impact on the proj ect schedule and these may not always be identified early on in the project planning. Who in the project team is responsible for identifying and managing stakeholders and how do we organize and manage these interfaces with stakeholders? How can we work effectively with governments and regulators to satisfy regulatory requirements while still moving ahead quickly? How do we ensure that fast-tracking a project still gives communities and NGOs a fair say in the process? |
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Session 5: New Technology – Is It a Risk or Opportunity in Fast Track Developments? |
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Session Managers: Robin Mills, Azamat Ismagilov, Anatoly Zolotukhin Challenging projects often require new technologies to render them profitable. But these same technologies introduce a degree of scope and schedule risk. Is fast-tracking fundamentally at odds with new technology application? How can we manage the development and maturation of novel technologies within a project and avoid putting the project budget and schedule at risk? When should a critical high value technology element of a project be considered a fast-track project in its own right? Fast-track project teams tend to select very conservative, standard technical solutions in order to reduce project risks. Is that always a sensible thing to do? What lifecycle value is sacrifi ced in return for a more predictable implementation? What is the right time to consider new technologies and how is their implementation best managed within a total project? The session will discuss the management of novel/new technologies within projects and attempt to defi ne good or even best practices. |
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Session 6: People Skills: What Is Needed to Deliver Fast Track Projects? |
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Session Managers: Iain Percival, Colin Taylor, Alexander Shandrygin Successfully delivered fast track developments require effective relationships with key stakeholders (internal and external) and high performing project teams. Where post implementation reviews of projects are carried out, they often conclude that team capabilities - from the development and project manager to individual techni cal contributors - are critical in dictating success or failure. High performing teams are characterized by having an energetic, informed, engaged leader, well developed individual technical skills and competence, a good understanding of each others’ responsibilities, a shared view of what constitutes success, structured knowledge retention, information sharing and uncertainty management, discipline and focus. This does not happen by accident but is the result of highly developed so-called soft skills and careful people selection. This session examines if the industry gives suffi cient attention to developing such skills and to making use of the available IT to ols to enable high performance. If the answer is “no”, what must be done to make sure the required changes and improvements are made? |
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Session 7: Contracting and Procurement – New Models for Robust Fast Tracking? |
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Session Managers: Roger Swaine, Willem Bloem, John Cheesebrough Time to first production signifi cantly influences overall project economics but there are many aspects of project delivery that influence cost, time and quality. Whilst the implementation of appropriate technology is clearly an enabler and may effectively reduce project duration, an equally key element for successful delivery is a properly examined procurement and contracting strategy which meets the demands of the industry circumstances at the time of field development. Conventionally, supplier and contractor selection is a step-wise process which may add signifi cant time to the project life cycle. Poor supplier and contractor selection can put the overall project at risk by increasing cost, introducing delay or by the delivery of poor quality. When any one of these fundamental criteria come under pressure, then the others usually suffer as each are inter-related. By their very nature, fast-track projects overlap the design, procurement and construction phases of the work – so how should suppliers and contractors be selected for robust fast track delivery? |
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Session 8: Integration at Speed: Achievable Dream or a Never Ending Nightmare |
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Session Managers: Steve Taylor, Colin Taylor Iain Percival Integration is a challenge that faces every project. Integration is needed at the micro scale, for example the geologist and reservoir engineer working within a project stage, and at the macro scale, for example combining the technical, commercial and political building blocks required to efficiently move a project through its full life cycle. These considerations are going to assume a much higher significance as we progress through the 21st century. This session will explore the future requirements and opportunities associated with enhancing integration within each project stage and throughout the full project life cycle. The session will utilise key outcomes from the previous sessions to build a framework for exploring themes connected with work fl ows for the future, streamlining interfaces, ensuring effective & effi cient knowledge sharing across functions as the project matures, building and managing extended teams and the use of advanced technology, such as design environments. |
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Session 9: Concluding the Challenges |
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Session Managers: Pieter Kapteijn, John Cheesebrough What are the main insights and learning the forum attendees would like to share with the broader E&P industry? These insights may be captured for each development dimension (integration, risk and uncertainty, skills, technology, project governance etc) and covering the overall integrated development activity. The ambition will be to capture the outcomes of the Forum in a form that is thoughtand discussion-provoking, supported by all attendees and can be published in the main Industry publications. |
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Poster Session |
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Session Manager: Willem Bloem |
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