8 October 2012—Special events, panels, and technical sessions will highlight the projects, facilities, and construction technical discipline during this year’s conference as this increasingly important E&P sector continues to gain stature.
The discipline has attracted more attention as global oil and gas projects have become more complex and technically challenging, including ultradeepwater developments, subsea processing, unconventional gas, stranded gas, remote locations, harsh environments, and water handling issues. SPE responded to the need for more technical information and knowledge sharing in the discipline by expanding conference sessions and workshops and launching the Oil and Gas Facilities magazine earlier this year.
Tonight, experts will discuss some of the largest and most innovative projects in the oil and gas industry, ones that have set the standard to follow. The “Learnings From Facilities Megaprojects” dinner and panel session will take place beginning at 1930 in Room 006 A-C, River Level, of the convention center. Ken Arnold, senior technical adviser with WorleyParsons, will moderate the session that includes panelists Abdulrahman Al-Jarri, manager of Production and Facilities Development Department at Saudi Aramco; Gordon Sterling, consultant and Shell retiree; Ivan Garcia Santos, manager of topside engineering at Petrobras; and Edward W. Merrow, president and chief executive officer of Independent Project Analysis.
The projects to be discussed include:
• Installation of massive production facilities in a short time to handle several million BOPD in Saudi Arabia
• Large offshore facilities in Brazil
• Pioneering of deepwater projects in the Gulf of Mexico
• Canadian oil sands projects in Alberta
Tickets for the event will be available for purchase in the Registration area and at the door tonight.
This afternoon, a technical paper session on “Enhancement of Facilities Technology” will take place beginning at 1400 in Room 205. Session chairpersons are Hisham Saadawi of ADCO and Ted Frankiewicz of SPEC Services. Six papers will be presented on various operator experiences with enhancing the performance of facilities using design optimization, life extension of existing facilities, and improved economics.
Two events will take place on Tuesday. Beginning at 0830 in Room 212, a panel session on “Challenges in Projects, Facilities, and Construction” will be moderated by Jeff Sawchuk of BP and Bob Hubbard of John M. Campbell. The session will discuss challenges that engineers and managers will face over the next several years in bringing projects to completion on time and within budget. Panelists are Dick Westney of Westney Consulting Group, Cheryl Wiewiorowski of BP, Mike Mileo of Chevron, and John Walsh, formerly of Shell and now of GHD Group.
Later in the day, a technical paper session on “Facilities Technology Applications” will take place beginning at 1400 in Room 212. The session will be chaired by Wael F. Ellaithy of Arabian Oil and Walsh, who is also SPE’s Technical Director for Projects, Facilities, and Construction. Six technical papers will be presented on finding the right technology for a particular field facility.
At 0830 on Wednesday, a special session will focus on “Knowledge Sharing on Separations.” The session takes place in Room 210, Concourse Level, of the convention center.
Moderator Robert Chin of Shell will oversee the session that looks at how reliable separation is becoming an enabling technology in developing remote location resources and for difficult applications such as heavy oil, produced water, and sand disposal. The session will cover separation topics ranging from issues with conventional separator design to emerging technology trends.
Speakers at the session will be Ken Arnold, senior technical adviser at WorleyParsons; Mark Bothamley, chief engineer at John M. Campbell; and Gary Sams, research and development director of oil products at Cameron.
A panel discussion on emerging technology trends will be moderated by Victor van Asperen, general manager of Separation Systems Americas at FMCTI, and Chris Buckingham, program director of Mechanical Engineering Division at SWRI. Panelists are Ole Okland, manager of subsea technology and operations at Statoil; Ed Grave, fractionation and separation specialist at ExxonMobil; and Jimmie Riesenberg, engineering manager of compact modular processing systems at Chevron.
