Q&A with Andrew Gould

Abstract

As Chairman of the OE 2005 conference in Aberdeen, what issues do you think will attract particular interest at this year’s conference? I think that general interest will be focused on how the industry can build and maintain production. There will obviously be a focus on the North Sea and the changes that will occur in the region as it becomes a mature basin. Therefore, I believe that there will be a lot of discussion about the technology needed to increase recovery factors. And there will undoubtedly be some spillover of the debate into where new production will come from and who is going to develop it. So I’m also expecting to hear discussion about the Middle East and Russia as well as on the roles of the national oil companies, the major integrated companies, and the independents. One issue facing the North Sea region is how to manage a maturing production business. What new opportunities exist here for the service sector? The main opportunity is to innovate to enhance recovery. North America and Canada already provide many opportunities for specialized services and specialized service companies. If you look at the Canadian market in particular, there are lots of companies that focus on one particular aspect of the business. So I think you will begin to see a service industry fragmented into specialists in particular aspects of managing and enhancing production from mature basins rather than a service industry organized around large development projects. Technology in the North Sea will become more and more fit for purpose if companies can justify the enhanced recovery process at a reasonable cost. So there will be many opportunities for both the big service companies as well as the smaller, local service operations.