UK Oil and Gas Collaboration Conference

Today, the Institute of Energy at the University of Aberdeen is hosting the 2016 UK Oil and Gas Collaboration Conference. The conference precedes the UK Government’s new Energy Act expected to pass into law in Spring 2016, which will make it mandatory for North Sea oil and gas exploration companies to collaborate in order to achieve Maximum Economic Recovery (MER) for the UKCS. The industry trade association Oil and Gas UK further endorses this forthcoming legislation and the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) is keen to foster voluntary collaboration at all levels of the industry. The conference is focusing on helping all parts of the supply and operating chain to share best practices and benchmark with other process industries, such as aerospace, construction and automotive, which continue to be held up as examples of industries which have collaborated successfully in the past.

The organisers claim that this is the very first conference of its kind, where many of the themes have not yet been discussed or debated in sufficient detail. Anyone who has attended an industry conference or followed oil and gas news in the last two years may feel that the topic has already been covered sufficiently. However, what this conference aims to do is help transform the talk about collaboration into practical action which is dearly needed. Aspects of collaboration which will be covered include the company culture and ethos required, collaboration with peers and regulators, the legal issues, cross industry benchmarking, innovation and cost e­fficiencies, and EOR. The conference will feature leading figures from industry, including the Oil and Gas Authority’s Director of Exploration and Production Gunther Newcombe and Paul Goodfellow, UK Upstream Director for Shell, which demonstrates how seriously the topic is being taken.

As we have covered in previous posts, we are committed to working collaboratively with our Consortium partners and licence holders to advance our solutions, deliver projects and maximise cost reduction. We will be taking a keen interest in the outcome from the conference and will keep you updated through this blog.