Special Sessions

Tuesday, 11 September • 1400-1530

Riverview Room 4

Special Session 1: Well Safety and Incident Response: Industry Progress, Regulator Expectations, Challenges

Recent upstream well control incidents continue to underline the need for all stakeholders to work together to achieve a step change in well incident prevention, intervention capability and response preparedness. This is a common challenge best addressed in different ways depending on circumstances and capabilities.

This special session brings together regulators from both developed and developing countries and the global upstream industry association, the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (OGP). The regulator presentations from Australia and Ghana will provide insight into regulatory expectations and highlight the challenges involved in regulatory capacity building in two very different environments.  OGP’s response will describe progress on implementing the initiatives on well incident prevention, intervention and response that the Association’s Global Industry Response Group (GIRG) announced in May 2011.

Wednesday, 12 September • 1100-1230

Riverview Room 4

Special Session 2: The Challenge of “Getting to Zero”

This session will focus on the needs of the industry to achieve the goal of zero incidents. From recent high profile events to routine performance, what will it take to improve performance? What are the keys to strong systems and inspiring individual behaviors that will eliminate unplanned events? The panel will consist of four panelists, each providing overview of their perspectives on the topic based on their own experiences and observations.

The prospective list of panelists will include:

• An organisational culture consultant giving highlights and learnings from the recent SPE Forum on “Getting to Zero” and the follow-up workshop.
• An organiser of the SPE “Human Factors Summit” who will present the results from the summit and the white paper that will capture the learnings.
• A representative from an Australian consulting firm who will share his company’s perspective on safety culture and the challenge of “Getting to Zero.”
• A representative from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board who will share their perspective on some of the contributing HSSE factors and recommendations from recent disasters, with focus on observations to prevent recurrence.

Thursday, 13 September • 1145-1245

Riverview Room 4

Special Session 3:  HSE Aspects of Hydraulic Fracturing

The use of hydraulic fracturing to access unconventional reservoirs in the last decade has been accompanied by growing awareness of, regulation of, and stakeholder interest in the HSE aspects of these techniques. The prospective panelists for this session include representatives from operating companies, service companies, and consultants. Topics for discussion will include regulation, disclosure of information & protection of intellectual property, environmental and social impacts, and operational aspects of hydraulic fracturing.