Offshore Technology Conference 2009
The 2009 Offshore Technology Conference was held May 4-7 at Reliant Park in Houston. Surprisingly 66,000 attendees from over 120 countries participated in the midst of a global economic recession and in spite of concerns about the swine flu. The conference was the second largest in the OTC’s 40-year history and was slightly smaller than last year’s record-setting attendance. The 2009 OTC filled over 557,000 square feet of exhibition area to capacity with 2500 companies from 38 countries.
“This year’s attendance levels underscore that in a downturn, energy professionals come to OTC to learn about technologies and innovative approaches to reduce their costs and improve performance. OTC is known for presenting new and proven technologies that will help companies find and produce more oil and gas in deeper waters, and for sharing lessons learned on global projects that advance the offshore industry,” said Don Vardeman, 2009 OTC chairman.
Part of the conference was spent discussing the need for the petroleum industry to stay ahead of government policy issues that affect the energy sector, and the need for a new “engagement model” to increase communication and collaboration with opposing groups in order to change the overall tone of the energy debate.
John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil and current head of the non-profit Citizens for Affordable Energy, said, “I’m convinced that American people are smart and pragmatic, and if they hear the whole story about oil and gas, coal, nuclear, which is our base line energy, and not the myths, then they will be far more supportive of what the nation needs in the future.”
The 2009 OTC keynote speaker, Thierry Pilenko, chairman and CEO of Technip, said the oil and gas industry faces challenges in the current lower price environment and must reduce costs while retaining human capital, and avoid a “stop-and-go attitude” that is detrimental to the image of the petroleum industry.
The 2010 Offshore Technology Conference is scheduled for May 3-6 back at Reliant Park in Houston.
Sources for this post include OTC.09, Subsea World and the Houston Chronicle.
Published Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 12:35 pm and filed under Industry News.