From Aberdeen: Cost reduction is still at the top of everyone’s agenda as the oil price downturn continues to bite, but there are opportunities out there, delegates at the Share Fair here heard.

Kevin Ferrol, head of contracts for Total E&P, said that its operating costs have been increasing 14% year on year, while production has been declining from its mature assets.

“We can’t continue like that,” he said. “The key message is we need to focus on cost control.”

But he did hold out a ray of hope for contractors. “We’re really interested in hearing from suppliers who can help us improve our asset integrity and help manage that. We are also interested in suppliers who can help us with the cost of well construction.

“Also small pool development. With our hub strategy we have a number of small fields that can be potentially tied back to our hubs and we’re looking at how we can do that cost effectively and how we can release the value from stranded assets.”

Ferrol said that Total’s current emphasis is on the delayed deepwater Laggan-Tormore subsea-to-shore project and getting that production onstream. “The real opportunity there is the long term support of the offshore assets and the onshore gas plant. In parallel we have the Edradour and Glenlivet project ongoing which is a subsea tieback to the Laggan-Tormore hub. All contracts been placed but there could be opportunities with our key supply chain partners.”

Total is also mulling development for its Tobermory discovery, a potential 175 km long distance subsea tieback to Laggan-Tormore.

“It is a challenging project and in particular how do we make it economical? It is currently in the conceptual stage but there is still a lot of work to be done on that front.”

He said that in the Central Graben area of the UKCS Total has undertaken a substantial campaign of redevelopment which should significantly extend field life.

The company will be operating four jack-ups in the area in 2016 which should produce opportunities in terms of well services.

BP, meanwhile, was keen to stress that it was in the North Sea for the long haul. It expects to produce 160 to 170 Mb/d this year and output will increase with some major projects coming onstream.

Andy Leadbetter, North Sea regional director for BP, said the increase in production is being driven largely by two major projects, Clair Ridge Phase 2 and Quad 204.

Leadbetter said Quad 204 was progressing well and the Glen Lyon FPSO vessel, which will be replacing the Schiehallion FPSO, is in Korea at the moment and will undergo sea trials in the next couple of weeks. In March or April next year it will go across to Norway for commissioning prior to start up towards the end of 2016.

Phil Webb, BP’s well integrity team leader, said that out of the 299 wells BP operates in the UK sector 180 are subsea. “They all need routine maintenance and intervention. I have been working in the industry and I’m looking at the same thing I saw 33 years ago. We really have gone nowhere,” he said.

He said he was “desperate” for someone to come up with a paint for 117 trees which could be treated without shot blasting and a loss of production.

He also questioned why all operators had their own well kill packages. Webb said if the industry was “wise, money could be saved with a single industry-wide shared capping stack.”

Over-engineering is another problem and Webb wanted to know why it was necessary to have a 13,500 psi rated wellhead for a 400 psi well.

Lauren McGregor, Talisman Sinopec’s functional excellence coordinator, echoed this sentiment. “In 2013 we might have been asking for the gold plated standard, whereas in 2017 and beyond we might be asking for the bronze plated standard. We are changing our model.”