Home: Issue 2 2012 › Shaping the future

Shaping the future

Shaping the future

29/02/2012 | Channel: IT, Technology, Equipment, Health & Safety, Exploration & Production, Drilling, Lifting Gear, Subsea, Support Services, Manufacturing, Hire & Rental, Human Resources, Environmental, Subsea UK, Decommissioning, Storage, Pipeline

For more than 40 years the Oceanology International Exhibition and Conference has been a key date in the marine science and ocean technology community, providing a forum for the discussion and debate of the latest and most important topics facing the industry.

Held biennially, and this year taking place at ExCel in London, UK between Tuesday 13th and Thursday 15th March 2012, Oceanology is a global forum where industry, academia and governments share knowledge and connect with the marine technology and ocean science community, improving their strategies for measuring, exploiting, protecting and operating in the world’s oceans.

On each occasion, the event plays host to the world’s leading and most comprehensive exhibition, where many of the market’s leading businesses, suppliers and innovators showcase the industry’s latest developments and future technical solutions.

Alongside this is an extensive conference programme hosting discussions and debates on the hottest topics. The ‘Oceanology International Education Programme’ is free for all attendees to the Oceanology event, and gives those visiting perhaps one of the best opportunities via its extensive technical programme to showcase the latest developments and thinking from the marine science and ocean technology industry.

This year’s programme will be based around six one-day conferences looking at key technology areas, as well as the main industry sectors engaging with marine science and ocean technology:
  • Oil and gas
  • Marine renewables
  • Hydrography and geophysics
  • Maritime Security
  • Navigation and positioning
  • Ocean observation and forecasting
Oceanology’s oil and gas programme is based around the concept that the demand for oil and gas is expected to increase steadily in the future, and that as the global oil and gas map changes E&P operations will be carried out in frontier locations, such as deep waters and Arctic regions. Naturally, these locations will provide a number of significant challenges to oil and gas companies, including both meteorological and oceanographic conditions that will need to be overcome in order for companies to explore, develop and produce the available resources.

Oceanology will feature a one-day programme that is created by the Oil & Gas Producers Association and is dividied into two sessions:

Morning sessions
chaired by Colin Grant, BP Subsea & Floating Systems Upstream Engineering Centre, and covering:
  • Keynote address – The US IOOS response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill: The critical role of modern ocean observing networks
  • Gulf of Mexico deepwater current structure observations
  • Survey of experience with integrated metocean and structural integrity monitoring on 25 deepwater floating production platforms
  • Worldwide internal solution criteria
  • Surveys on seas ice from an HSE perspective, the new OGP 447 guidelines
Afternoon sessions
chaired by Colin Grant, BP Subsea & Floating Systems Upstream Engineering Centre, and covering:
  • The development of standards and guidelines for the use of satellite based ice information in the oil and gas sector
  • Coupled modelling of the Caspian Sea
  • Ocean radar to monitor sea currents for offshore structures, West Africa Project
  • Satellite radar support to drilling operations off French Guyana
  • Satellite ocean front maps reveal dynamic surface currents, improved metocean for offshore oil and gas

Of course, the conference programme is only one aspect of Oceanology International, and those from the E&P industry will have the opportunity to learn more about a number of topics, such as discovering new strategies and technologies to tackle deepwater and harsh environment reserves, evaluate the latest geophysical survey techniques used to search for new hydrocarbon reserves, assess technology alternatives to develop improved HSE standards, learn new strategies to monitor and limit environmental impact, discuss ROV training requirements with leading providers and evaluate the latest test, inspection and maintenance technologies.

This year, those in the industry can also partake in Catch the Next Wave, which is a one-day conference that will take place on 12th March, the eve of Oceanology International. Addressing tomorrow’s solutions to today’s ocean challenges, Catch the Next Wave will include presentations by global experts on key disruptive technologies and where they are emerging in the marine sector. Exploring technologies such as power sources, sensors, nanotechnology, materials, robotics and cyber-infrastructure, it will take a longer-term view of the capabilities that will shape the industry’s future ability to explore, understand, predict and exploit oceans.

Whether you are involved in oil and gas exploration, the renewables sector, hydrography and geophysics, security or any other maritime related activities, a visit to Oceanology International 2012 will provide you with everything you need to understand the future of your industry..

Oceanology International 2012
Oceanology International takes place between 13th and 15th March at ExCel in London.

For further information please visit: www.oceanologyinternational.com