ABERDEEN, Scotland—The perennial question of how to inspire the next generation of oil industry professionals was the main topic of discussion during the opening plenary session Sept. 8 at SPE Offshore Europe 2015.
A packed auditorium heard Expro CEO Charles Woodburn, also the technical conference chairman, urge the oil industry to be more vocal in highlighting what the industry has to offer. Acknowledging the tough times the upstream sector is experiencing, he encouraged the industry to make more effort to help others understand the sector and set its own agenda, rather than have others set the agenda.
“We are just not vocal enough,” he said, before noting the importance of engaging more with younger generations.
Picking up on the message, TV presenter and physicist Brian Cox said stories told by the offshore sector is important for inspiring young people.
“The more people understand something, the more interesting it gets,” Cox said.
Illustrating the point, Cox said pointed out that there may be vast energy reserves on other planets. It appears that Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has “vast lakes of liquefied petroleum gas,” with reserves estimated in the hundreds of billions of barrels, he said without offering proposed solutions for bringing the LPG back to Earth.
He did, however, voice support for the upstream industry and its ongoing quest to responsibly supply the world with more energy reserves.
“The idea that energy use is a bad thing is nonsensical,” said Cox. “Your industry makes life better for people all around the world. Energy consumption itself is good. It’s one of the fundamental things of civilization, lifting people out of poverty and toward a better quality of life.”
Technology remains a crucial part of the picture.
Simon Bittlestone, vice president of research at Schlumberger, focused on a number of technology innovations, including advances in steerable marine seismic acquisition streamers.
Part of the Q-Marine system, the lateral steering ability and depth control enables close and constant streamer separation, giving improved crossline sampling and the ability to steer for optimal subsurface coverage and repeatability from survey to survey, Bittlestone said. “I had a lot of fun developing these,” he added.
The so-called “steerable birds” are used by Schlumberger on streamers of up to 10 km in length, with a “bird” positioned every few hundred meters, he said. With adjustable wings, the inline “birds” enable vertical and horizontal steerability by rotating the streamer cable and enabling accurate placement.
Mark Thomas can be reached at mthomas@hartenregy.com.