SPE Offshore Europe 2019: Breakthrough to Excellence – Our license to operate

Recognized by professionals in the upstream industry’s offshore sector as Europe’s leading E&P event, the SPE Offshore Europe (OE) Conference & Exhibition is gearing up for another year in Aberdeen, Scotland. The event, to be held Sept. 3–6, 2019, will feature the offshore sector’s most significant technologies.

Fig. 1. The SPE OE 2019 exhibition floor will feature 900+ companies, whose technical experts will be ready to engage with attendees.

This year, the biennial event will take place under the theme: “Breakthrough to Excellence—Our license to operate.” It will allow a global network of more than 36,000 industry professionals to connect, source and compare effective solutions. “SPE Offshore Europe 2019 will allow the industry to come together and discuss what really matters,” said Michael Borrell, conference chair and Total’s senior V.P., North Sea and Russia. “It will be important to talk about keeping our costs low, pushing the boundaries of innovation, and focusing on excellence in our operations.”

Exhibition. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with technical experts from more than 900 suppliers on the exhibition floor (Fig. 1), from international market leaders to new, innovative technology companies. There will be thousands of demonstrations and case studies presented from a wide range of E&P companies.

This year, the highly popular “Decommissioning Zone” will return. The zone, which also is free to attend, will include decommissioning technology and service providers, as well as a conference theater program, in association with the industry’s key associations. Following the offshore sector’s recent growth and success, OE is expanding the area. Now called “The Late Life and Decommissioning Zone,” it will bring together more than 11,000 highly targeted technical, business and government professionals.

Fig. 2. Keynote and technical sessions at SPE OE 2019 will give attendees an opportunity to stretch their knowledge and learn about recent technical innovations.

An “ENGenious Zone” also will be incorporated into SPE OE 2019, following success of the inaugural event in Aberdeen earlier this year. It will highlight innovations in robotics, data analytics, automation and advanced communications. Additionally, The Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) and social enterprise Elevator will run a start-up zone, providing exposure to some of the biggest up-and-coming companies in the sector.

Conference. Attendees can expand their technical knowledge with exceptional insight and best practice at the industry’s largest free-to-attend conference, Fig. 2. Produced in association with SPE, attendees can stay informed and competitive through the content presented over four days of keynote, technical, financial and special sessions.

In additional to breakfast briefings and topical lunches, more than 50 technical papers will be presented during SPE OE 2019. Speakers representing government entities, service companies and E&P majors—including Total, Shell, Premier Oil, DNV GL, TechnipFMC, Chevron, BHGE, Equinor, Weatherford, Halliburton, Schlumberger and NOV, among others—will discuss important topics related to Europe’s offshore sector.

Fig. 3. Discussions and analyses will touch on a wide variety of issues and challenges affecting the offshore industry, from field development and automation to decommissioning and the environment.

Attendees can sit in on discussions and analyses (Fig. 3) associated with late-life operations; artificial intelligence; project finance; transformational data analytics; subsea solutions; subsea flow assurance; process safety management; decommissioning; underwater innovation; reservoir analytics; decarbonization; digitalization; safety performance; standardization; smarter and more effective field development; automation; the energy transition; and more.

“Our committee is full of international oil and gas industry leaders, and they have developed an excellent program, which gets to the heart of the main opportunities and challenges facing the region,” Borrell said. “Offshore Europe 2019 is a great opportunity for us to challenge ourselves in the North Sea basin. I want the event to not just look at what is going well in the North Sea, but to engage with the best of what is happening across the world. It is only by sharing best practice, and being open to new ideas, that we truly have the opportunity to break through to excellence.” 

SPE OE 2019 at a glance:

• More than 900 exhibitors, representing 130 countries
• An extensive plenary, keynote and technical program will be featured
• The program includes these keynote speakers:
  • Patrick Pouyanné, TOTAL
  • Bernard Looney, BP
  • Wael Sawan, Shell
  • Doug Pferdehirt, TechnipFMC
  • Karl Johnny Hersvik, Aker BP
  • Hinda Gharbi, Schlumberger
  • Christiana Figueres, former UNFCCC Executive Secretary and Convenor of Mission 2020

SPE OE 2019 fact sheet

PURPOSE: SPE Offshore Europe is recognized by offshore E&P professionals as Europe’s leading E&P event. Attending will ensure you are up to date with the most significant technologies and can connect with a global network

WHERE: P & J Live (TECA), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

When: Sept. 3–6, 2019

Who attends: Engineers, technicians, executives, operators and managers from more than 130 countries, and all fields, in the offshore E&P sector

Frequency: Bi-annual

Founding date: 1971

Preliminary statistics:

Attendance: 36,000+, representing 100+ countries (including exhibit personnel)

Exhibiting companies: 900+

Number of international pavilions:15+

Conference sessions: 120+ hr of technical presentations and plenary sessions

Media coverage: 165+ credited media attendees

Supporting media and associations: 28, including World Oil and Petroleum Economist, and their parent, Gulf Energy Information

Companies speaking include: BP, Chevron, CNOOC, DNV GL, Equinor, Halliburton, Microsoft, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell, SNC-Lavalin