OTC flows into Houston

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Edited by Mary C. Gannon
Senior Associate Editor

Photo courtesy of Barchfeld Photography

As the world’s largest event for the development of offshore exploration and production resources, the Offshore Technology Conference is the place where the oil and gas industry introduces new technology. It is slated for May 2-5 at Reliant Park, Houston, and features approximately 587,000 ft² of exhibit space, the largest in nearly 30 years. More than 100 fluid power component and related companies will exhibit at the show, featuring key technology used in offshore drilling and pumping. OTC is a scientific and technical conference for industry professionals, sponsored by 12 professional societies representing every aspect of the offshore exploration and production industry.

Addressing global technology
Last year’s events drew more than 72,900 attendees from more than 120 countries from all over the world. This year’s conference will focus on “Diversity in Energy, People and Resources,” presenting solutions for a wide range of topics such as projects, management, and health, safety, and environment. In addition to 300 technical presentations, OTC offers panel sessions where industry leaders will discuss a variety of current challenges and future directions.

For OTC 2011, the highest profile will be on impacts to oil and gas developments in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico following the Macondo oil spill. In the post-spill regime, there is a new era of government regulation and oversight, as well as evolving impacts. Several panels of experts and high-level government officials will address issues related to risk, drilling safety, energy development, and spill response for future oil and gas developments.

OTC 2011 also will discuss major projects and the management of large projects around the world. In addition, new topics and those that have not been recently presented at OTC will include enhanced oil recovery; marine archaeology; deployment of subsea equipment; welding; computational fluid dynamics; and shale gas developments. Green topics include OTC technical sessions that highlight new developments in wind energy and carbon sequestration. A panel of experts will address the advances and limitations to all of the leading alternative energy sources. This year’s invited organization is the American Meteorological Society.

Innovation on display
With more than 2400 exhibitors, OTC ranks among the largest annually held trade shows in the US. According to Susan Cunningham, 2011 OTC chairperson, “This is an amazingly high tech industry that creates technology that can end up in a NASA space vehicle. Incredible technology is required to drill miles under the ocean, which has been compared technologically to putting a man on the moon.

“OTC has become such an important event for the industry. This year, we continue to innovate and offer even more for attendees. Participants will see new products and technology that can improve their results and also can gain a greater understanding of issues facing the industry,” Cunningham explained.

Key new fluid power components to be introduced include hydraulic pumping units, hydrostatic power packs, accumulators, and more.

See a complete schedule and register for the conference and purchase tickets for special events at www.otcnet.org/2011.