Once upon a time I was serving as deputy assistant secretary of oil and gas in the US Department of Energy, under Secretary Bill Richardson. He sent me to far away lands where I discovered that governments and private businesses cooperated in technology efforts in energy sectors, especially when it comes to offshore oil and gas.

Norway, France, England, Brazil, among others, had invested "bucks," to quote my ex-boss, along with the private sector in high-risk, high-tech projects for offshore oil and gas development. These efforts were proving successful and accelerating not only technologies, but sometimes even regulations. Novel, right?

Partnerships

Well, the story has not changed since I served in 2000, and this year at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) we will once again be meeting with these different international partnerships. We have cleverly come up with the name International Offshore Partnerships (IOP) to umbrella the meeting and the hope is that it will continue forward for several right reasons. These reasons are global in nature, and both governments and industries will be well served to support the IOP.

The primary mission of the IOP is simply to accelerate the global development of deepwater resources through the sharing of ideas and information on policy, technology and operations in areas of agreed interest. Cost-effective, safe and environmentally sustainable goals will be set leading to gap identification, sharing of best practices and minimizing duplication of efforts globally.

These efforts should lead to almost immediate results in the areas of policy and regulation, operations and safety, engineering and design, and the ever-important scientific and environmental arenas.

Deepwater

Accelerating the development of global deepwater oil and gas resources at the lowest cost, in the least amount of time and environmentally is in the interest of the all participating countries and companies. The deepwater developmental costs for most companies are orders of magnitude higher than conventional development, and most cannot face it alone. Most countries cannot face it alone either. Today there is not a forum allowing interested parties to share information and best practices to achieve the above-mentioned goals.

Government groups, operators and service companies, as well as universities, currently participate and subscribe to programs like Norway's Demo 2000, France's Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP) and the Atlantic Canadian Petroleum Institute. These programs have had success in developing and vetting technologies and increasing production from the offshore. The IOP partnerships aid in efforts to accelerate technological developments.

Energy plan

On the American domestic front, the vice president of the United States submitted to the president a National Energy Plan. Chapter Eight (8), Strengthening Global Alliances, Enhancing National Energy Security and International Relationships, focuses on the global nature of the issue and contains 70 recommendations regarding international cooperation and advancement of technology.

Specifically:

"The NEPD Group recommends that the President direct the Secretaries of Commerce, State and Energy to promote market-based solutions to environmental concerns; support exports of US clean energy technologies and encourage their overseas development; engage bilaterally and multilaterally to promote best practices; explore collaborative international basic research and development in energy alternatives and energy-efficient technologies; and explore innovative programs to support the global adoption of these technologies."

With all that is mentioned above and demonstrated in the accompanying graphic depictions, the best practices on the engineering, scientific and regulatory fronts are critical. Currently, the International Regulators Offshore Safety Forum (IRF) is doing an outstanding job of reviewing standards for the offshore. The IRF is comprised of regulatory agencies with responsibilities for offshore facility safety. Currently, representatives from the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand participate in this organization.

The IRF participants share information and research on technological advances, safety issues, accident investigations and regulatory policies. They also cooperate on developing international standards and performance measures. Group members also develops regulations; they exchange personnel and conduct joint safety audits. Currently, they give out an annual International Safety Award and also have an International Regulators Conference, which is aimed at the 79 nations having ongoing or proposed offshore oil and gas operations.

Technology

The International Committee on Regulatory Authority Research and Development (ICRARD) is organized to have a more technical approach and is open to membership to national offshore regulatory authorities, national offshore research institutions and national oil companies which support offshore research and development programs. ICRARD was established to provide a forum to coordinate research activities, to exchange information and to promote research cooperation between these organizations.

With all of this - IRF and ICRARD - the follow-up would be a robust platform of countries and companies cooperating where possible on engineering and scientific technologies, and their application, for accelerated safe and environmental oil and gas production. Countries and companies that are investing in these great partnerships should be commended and supported globally, and a platform for global oil and gas production should be established for best practices in the engineering, scientific and regulatory arenas.

There will be a short meeting of the IOP during this year's OTC, and details can be found at the E&P Web site (www.EandPnet.com). The importance of global coordination for increased safety and a sound ocean environment is critical and not a fairy tale.