Oilfield Conference Magazine - Issue 02

Issue 02 MAY - JUN

2012

www.oilfieldconference.com

FORTHCOMING CONFERENCES The hot topics, the top speakers and a heads-up on the locations

CHINA AND JAPAN Two countries divided by a common sea

HAS FLOATING LNG FINALLY MADE IT? Shell’s Prelude plans for offshore liquefaction

Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani CEO, Qatargas

WGC2012 comes to Kuala Lumpur FEATURE

World Gas Conference 2012

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Lost in the clouds -- how safe is cloud data storage?

Dr.Datu kR ah

COMPANY DATA SECURITY

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EDITOR’s LETTER

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DuG CANADA CONFERENCE

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A GENUINE SLICE OF SCOTTISH HISTORY AND HOSPITALITY

Welcome to our second issue

Yemeni oil and gas Facing security challenges

WGC2012 COMES TO KuALA LuMPuR KuALA LuMPuR

A scenic setting for WGC2012

Discussing unconventional plays

ABERDEEN FIRST HAND REPORT Early days for the North Sea

HOW SECuRE IS THE CLOuD? How safe is your stored data?

Innovation is key at devex Aberdeen focuses on E&P

A PRELuDE TO A NEW GENERATION OF FLOATING PRODuCTION Shell’s offshore liquefaction plans

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Global gas sector players meet

The charm of the Granite City

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GLOBAL PETROCHEMICALS FOCuSES ON STRATEGY, iNNOvATION

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HOW TO MAKE YOUR CONFERENCE EXPERIENCE COUNT Get more out of being a delegate

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SPE DEEPWATER drilling Deep technology challenges

Cologne hosts petchems forum

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MAY - JuN

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ce.com ldconferen www.oilfie

ING FORTHCOM CES N E R CONFE, the top speakers

Is there more oil, or much more?

ics The hot top up on the locations and a heads-

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TING LN?G HAS FLOAM E IT Y AD FINALLlud e plans for Shell’s Pre efaction offshore liqu

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DATA COMpANY RITY -- how safe SECuthe clouds

JUBILEE could be JUST THE BEGINNINGFOR GHANA

MpuR KuALA Lu E 2012 COMES TO NC WGC2012 WORLD GAS CONFERE

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CHINA AND JAPAN: DIVIdED BY A COMMON SEA

Considers the HR challenges

SECURITY AND SAFETY ON THE ROAD Keeping your tech, and yourself, safe

Is the issue oil – or history?

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• ISSUE 02 MAY - JUN 2012

FEATUR

Cover Story Our front cover features Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, CEO of Qatargas, the world’s largest LNG producer. He will be chairing a session at the World Gas Conference 2012. Held every three years, over five days, the WGC is The Big One for the global gas sector. This year it is being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The smaller cover photo is of Dr Datuk Rahim Hashim, President of the International Gas Union, organizer of WGC 2012. The IGU has 78 Charter Members and 38 Associate Members in 77 countries. It has been holding a high-profile gas sector conference every three years since 1931.

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53RD ANNuAL SYMPOSIuM

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EXXONMOBIL LOSES FIRST PLACE AS PRODuCER

First Latin America SPWLA event

Is this the start of a trend?

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CONFERENCE CALENDAR

Concise round-up of coming events

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Eloise Logan

by

Editor in Chief

Besides energy-related news and features, and the best conference information around, we also showcase general information of interest to the traveling oil and gas professional. In addition to the what, where and when of individual conferences, we offer a detailed look at the location, with the lowdown on the area brought to you by experienced travel writers.

KEYNOTE CONFERENCE: WGC 2012

Our keynote conference for this issue is the triennial World Gas Conference, which will be held this year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a long list of top-level speakers.

It’s the must-attend meeting for the global gas industry and much of significance has taken place in that sector since the last WGC in Buenos Aires. Not least the impact of the shale gas revolution, particularly in North America, and a rash of long-distance pipeline building across Continental Europe.

SHARE YOUR CONFERENCE STORIES

In this issue is the second of our regular feature articles based on readers’ personal experiences at conferences. If you have a story you’d like to share about a conference or conference location – funny, informative or cautionary – please reach out to us. Contact us at editor@oilfieldconference.com.

NEXT ISSUE IN TWO MONTHS

The magazine will be published every two months – in April, June, August, October, December – primarily in digital format, though we can supply printed paper copies on request. We’ve partnered with HP MagCloud to print and ship printed magazines to customers.

It’s an associated publication to our Oilfield Conference website www.oilfield-conference.com where you will find the world’s leading oil and gas conference and exhibition directory.

Mobile users, including iPad, Blackberry and Android owners, can get the digital version. Just Sign in to www.magcloud.com via the browser of your device, browse for our magazine and download your copy.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK

Stay ahead of the competition with immediate access. Readers can get a lot of our information digitally. Follow us on twitter at oconference. Or if you are more of a Facebook fan, find us on Facebook.

FEEDBACK WELCOME

We hope you like what you see in our magazine, and we would love to hear your comments. If there is anything you think we could do differently, or something we haven’t thought of that you’d like to see, do contact us at editor@oilfieldconference.com.

Best regards, Eloise Logan, Editor in Chief, Oilfield Conference magazine

Publisher

Adesope Babaniji

Editor-in-Chief Eloise Logan

Senior Energy Writers Meg Chesshyre Dr Neil Ford

Contributing Writers Alex Misiti Marek Biernacinski Dr. Mike Campbell Tim Dees Carolyn O’Donnell Anne-Marie Hardie Rich Campbell Melissa Rothermel Athena Dennis Pamela Suarez

Graphic Designer Regis Sudo

Digital Subscriptions

Subscription rate 1 year (6 issues) - US$19 2 years (12 issues) - US$29

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Phil Matthews phil.mattthews@oilfieldconference.com

Contact Us

editor@oilfieldconference.com

Office Address

3rd Floor, Riverside House, Riverside Drive, Aberdeen, AB11 7LH Scotland, UK

+44 1224 224410

Publishing

• ISSUE 02 MAY - JUN 2012

Welcome to the second issue of Oilfield Conference magazine, which we are working to establish as the leading oil and gas conference publication and the number one source for conference news and feature articles related to upcoming conferences.

Oilfield Conference Magazine is owned

by FSH Media Group and is published bi-monthly.

The opinions expressed by contributors to Oilfield Conference Magazine may not represent the official views of the magazine. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, the publisher does not assume responsibility or liability for errors or omissions.

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OIL & GAS

Potential investors must weigh up Yemen’s security situation

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emen was the fourth country to lose its leader as a result of the political and social unrest and revolt known as the “Arab Spring”. Under a deal brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council states, President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to stand down in February after 33 years in power. But even after that defeat, the country remains deeply divided, and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is becoming increasingly active among rebel forces.

Many fear that Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, could be-

come a failed state, threatening both its own liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector and the oil transit routes that lie off its southern coast.

Yemen becomes an exporter After years of delay, Yemen finally began to export liquefied natural gas in 2009. France’s Total led the development of the Yemen LNG project with a 39.62% stake, alongside partners Hunt Oil Company (17.22%), state-owned Yemen Gas Company (16.73%), SK Corporation (9.55%), Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas) (6%),

Hyundai (5.88%) and Yemen’s General Authority of Social Security and Pensions (5%).

As might be expected from the inclusion of three South Korean firms in the consortium, 2 million tonnes of LNG a year is exported to Kogas in South Korea. French companies Total Gas and Power and GDF Suez also have longterm purchase agreements to take 2.55 million tonnes a year and 2.15 million tonnes a year respectively.

Associated and non-associated gas is currently produced on the Safer fields in Block 18 of the Marib Region. It is transported via a 320-kilometer pipeline with transmission capacity of 1,140 million cubic feet/day to a liquefaction plant in Balhaf on the Gulf of Aden. The two trains have combined production capacity of 6.7 million tonnes/year, which Total estimates can be sustained for at least 25 years, based on proven reserves of 9.15 trillion cu ft of natural gas.

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Yemen’s new government faces huge challenges in maintaining national cohesion and dealing with rebel threats to its authority. The US and western governments are apprehensive because of the Al Qaeda risk and the country’s key location.

Yemen has become a gas exporter with Yemen LNG, but can it secure funding for new projects in such difficult circumstances? asks Neil Ford

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OIL & GAS

It had been hoped that further trains could be developed, if and when further gas discoveries were made, but exploration work has been deterred by the poor security situation. With proven gas reserves of 259 billion cubic meters, Yemen may have just a tiny fraction of the gas held by Qatar on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula, but its emergence as another LNG exporter has been welcomed by the international gas market because it widens the global supply base.

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New president elected

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The election of former vice-president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi as the new president in February might have been expected to dissipate much of the pressure that had built up to remove Saleh, including Cairo-style protests on the streets of the Yemeni capital, Sana’a. He was the only candidate in the election, though, so it was hardly a victory for the democratic process.

His electoral success was met with a series of attacks on military personnel around the country by AQAP. The group said that it was fighting against the government because it was “launching wars on those who want to implement Sharia law in [their] attempt to please the United States and the crusader west...while holding

talks with all parties, including the Shiite Huthis who are killing Sunnis.”

This refers to the conflict in the north of the country, where Shiite Huthi rebels are fighting against the national army. Clashes sometimes spill over the border into neighbouring Saudi Arabia, prompting Riyadh to provide help in tackling Shiite insurgents.

In the worst assault by AQAP, 185 soldiers were killed in the town of Kud in Abyan Governorate. The attackers were armed with Yemeni army equipment, helping to fuel claims that they had received support from some within the Kud army base.

General Ali Mansur, a former secretary at the defence ministry, went as far as to say that the AQAP had some support in the upper echelons of the military.

He claimed that the attack had been launched “in direct coordination with the former commander of the southern military region, General Mehdi Maqola”. The general had recently been replaced as part of personnel changes initiated by new president Hadi.

The second area of unrest is in the south, where rebels are seeking to regain independence for what was previously a separate communist state known as the Republic of South Yemen until unification in 1990. Rebel groups

control some mountainous parts of the south and hope to reverse the defeat they suffered in the 1994 civil war, during the last north-south conflict.

Key geographic location Aside from LNG production and the country’s modest oil sector, Yemen’s geographical position makes it a key location for the energy industry. Sited at the entrance to the Red Sea and the approaches to the Suez Canal, Yemen’s security situation is critical to the safety of the oil tankers that transport oil from the Gulf to European markets.

On the opposite side of the Gulf of Aden, Somalia is already considered to be the prime example of a failed state, with Somali pirates regularly attacking international shipping. A similar situation in Yemen could force even more tankers to make the much longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope.

The Hadi government faces a huge challenge in maintaining national cohesion and dealing with the rebels in both the north and south. On the plus side, Hadi’s origins in the south give him an advantage in his effort to keep both halves of the country together, and in addition he has support from the concerned international community against the threat of AQAP.

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CONFERENCE

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WGC2012 comes

to Kuala Lumpur The last three years have been a volatile period for the energy sector. Turmoil in the Middle East disrupted energy production from Libya and the devastating earthquake in Japan destroyed a major nuclear power plant, but also included world public perceptions of nuclear power among its victims.

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