Sustainable Recovery: Signs of Recovery?

Abstract

The 2021 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) was held in September as a hybrid (in-person and virtual) event in Dubai with more than 6,000 participants, with the health and safety of the participants being our highest priority. While the number of attendees is lower than in previous years, there was a general feeling that we may finally be getting out of the pandemic situation, after 18 months of a complete trans-formation of the way we work, communicate, and move. Thanks to the Conference Chair Ali Al Jarwan, CEO of Dragon Oil; Program Committee Chair Fareed Abdulla AlHashmi, COO of Dragon Oil; and the ATCE Executive and Program committees for organizing an excellent event under the theme of “The New Oil and Gas Journey: Agility, Innovation, and Value Creation.” The conference included 80 technical sessions, six plenary and panel sessions, and eight special sessions, spanning digitalization, electrification, sustainability, and emerging themes. Our appreciation goes to the sponsors, the exhibitors, the presenters, the volunteers, and the SPE staff. Dubai and the UAE, 1 week before the 2020 World Expo, were great hosts. Congratulations to the winners of the SPE (and AIME) International, Regional, and Student awards (https://jpt.spe.org/spe-honors-2021-international-award-recipients-during-annual-meeting). Many of them were able to travel to Dubai to receive their recognition. The Startup Village Awards, organized in collaboration with Rice University, was also well attended, and the winners were recognized (https://jpt.spe.org/2021-atce-startup-village-competition-winners-announced). The dynamism of the city of Dubai and the country of UAE and their capacity to project themselves in the future with a unique 50-year strategical timeframe that spans the period 2021–2071 never cease to amaze me. The world, including developing economies, has expanded significantly the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, reaching more than 6 billion doses administered, and nearly half of the world has received at least one dose of vaccination as of early October. The “green list” of countries deemed safe for travel is expanding after a summer that has seen a major impact of the COVID-19 Delta variant. Oil and gas demand is recovering for sectors such as transport and industry, even though the airlines may not see pre-pandemic levels of activity before 2025. Massive amounts of public funding injected to fuel the world’s economic recovery have been announced in Europe, the US, and Asia, adding up to trillions of dollars. However, economic recovery from the pandemic will take time, as there is a major backlog in global manufacturing activities impacting consumer markets and creating inflationary pressures.