Conference review
Best practices in developing unconventional resources was one of the main themes during the 2012 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE), held in San Antonio in October. The conference brought together 11,095 oil and gas professionals from around the world, making it among the top five highest attended ATCEs.
The technical program represented all six SPE technical disciplines with an expanded focus on the projects, facilities, and construction (PFC) discipline. New PFC sessions, including a special panel dinner on megaprojects, were part of SPE’s yearlong emphasis on the discipline.
Monday’s opening general session addressed the event’s unconventional theme with a panel of experts discussing the technological and financial challenges associated with unconventional oil and gas resources. David Hobbs, chief energy strategist at IHS CERA, moderated the panel that consisted of Mark Albers, senior vice president of ExxonMobil; Timothy Dove, president and chief operating officer of Pioneer Natural Resources; Steve Holditch, director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute; and David Lesar, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president of Halliburton.
The rush to develop unconventional resources has been an unstructured, chaotic, often costly learning experience that is still in its early days, according to the panelists. Ultimately, the opportunity to develop resources once seen as impossible to produce is likely to be an industry-changing experience.
“It is about transforming an entire industry to operating in a new and dynamic environment,” said Mohammed Al-Qahtani, vice president of petroleum engineering at Saudi Aramco, during his introduction to the panel discussion on making unconventional resources conventional.
The changes they described range from how engineers develop fields to what they say about what they do.
The furor over fracturing has forced the industry to address critics who say the technique is a threat to water supplies. “We need to educate the public to the risks and how we are managing them,” Albers said.
The push to maximize profits and minimize costs has altered relationships as companies consider whether the traditional division of labor makes sense.
“It is a business free-for-all,” with oil companies buying and running rigs and service companies taking on reserves, said Lesar.
The US has become a magnet for exploration and production professionals from around the world because of the boom in unconventional resources, said Holditch. While the United States is seen as a university for those looking to learn shale, much remains to be learned. A favorite phrase among the panelists was, “It is early days.”