Highlights

International Association of Oil & Gas Producers

New committee aims to improve
oil & gas industrys inuence
T
he Chair of the Communications
Committee, Andrew Hogg, is clear
on how better communications can
help OGP. Increasingly, he says,
OGP is being asked to act as an
advocacy organisation and represent
the industry at an international level.
This makes it necessary to take the
good work being done by committees
and explain it in a way that engages
stakeholders.
Improving our communication efforts
with our main external stakeholders,
which include international regulators,
industry bodies, special councils,
National Oil Industry Association
(NOIAs) and specialist media, will
help OGP increase its reputation
as an internationally recognised
representative body of the oil & gas
industry.
In recognition of OGPs emerging
advocacy role, the Communications
Task Force was recently upgraded to
a standing committee with Michael
Engell-Jensen, OGP Executive Director
as the Management Committee
sponsor. It will work with other
committees to create, rene and
2012
November
communicate key messages via the
appropriate medium, vet all external
presentations, develop the OGP
website and monitor NOIA agendas
to identify areas of mutual interest. It
will also establish a communications
radar to monitor the oil and gas
sphere in order to react to new issues
when they rst appear.
The committee held its rst meeting
in October with thirteen participants.
It was a great turnout says Andrew,
adding, new members are very
welcome to join. I am keen that
the committee is internationally
representative. We will ensure that
members can participate even if they
cannot physically attend meetings.
Participation in the committee will give
members the opportunity to help shape
and deliver OGPs communications
programme at a time when the
industry is increasingly under pressure
to communicate and be transparent.
It also allows individuals to share
best practise and to learn how other
companies approach communications
issues and challenges.
Andrew hopes that the committee can
work with the secretariat to provide
a communications service that is
commensurate with the expected
standard in the international oil and
gas industry. It has already decided
to create a communications framework
and a calendar to better anticipate
promotional opportunities. A process
for developing messages, and a
library of images, is also planned.
To be the voice you need to be
effective, and this means a fast
response, explains Andrew. The
development of a communications
framework will add value to
committees by helping them
disseminate their achievements
quickly. The calendar of events will
leverage OGPs committee work
by allowing the communications
committee to plan ahead in order to
meet the communications needs of
technical committees. The Secretariat
will maintain the calendar. It is
envisaged that it will list what issues
each committee is working will
allow OGP anticipate and target our
communications better using the range
of modern media available to us
such as internet advertisng and social
media.
The next meeting of the
Communications Committee will
take place in Brussels in January.
Any member interested in joining
the committee should contact their
member representative and send
an email to Danny Walsh, Assistant
Communications Manager:
danny.walsh@ogp.org.uk.
Noble Energy joins OGP
U
S-based Noble Energy, Inc.
has joined OGP. Founded 80
years ago, it was one of the rst
independent producers to explore
in the Gulf of Mexico and today its
business interests cover the US, the
Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa
and offshore Israel and Cyprus in the
Eastern Mediterranean. It is a S&P 500
company with reserves of 1.2 billion
barrels of oil equivalent and assets
totalling over $16 billion at year-end
2011.
Many of Noble Energys exploration
discoveries are now reaching
completion, giving it the condence
to project double-digit annual reserve,
production and cash ow growth over
the next ve years.
The OGP member representative is Ben
Dillon, Vice-President, Communications
and Government Relations. He is based
in Houston, USA.
New report recommends well
control improvements to industry
A
n OGP report has recommended
ways that the oil & gas industry can
improve well control. OGP Report N
476 Recommendations for enhancements
to well control training, examination and
certication was published by a task force
of the Wells Expert Committee (WEC) in
October.
The OGP Human Factors Task Force of the
Wells Expert Committee, with input from
the International Well Control Forum and
the International Association of Drilling
Contractors, wrote the report, which
contains recommended improvements to
current well control training, examination
and certication processes, and some
of the related philosophies that should
be adopted throughout the industry to
improve well control preparedness and
performance for all types of operations
conducted on all wells worldwide.
Some of the key recommendations
include:
Training on barrier management and
risk management be included in well
control training.
Training on well inux detection and
immediate response be improved.
Training adapted to better suit the well
operation, rig type and role of the
person involved with a well operation.
Minimum levels of training be specied
for personnel that may contribute
to the avoidance of, response to, or
mitigation of a well control situation.
Scenario or simulator based
training be evolved and adopted to
complement existing training.
General improvements be made to
the technical content of the training
syllabuses.
Learning, examination and certication
processes be improved.
A more systematic auditing process be
adopted to assure training goals are
consistently achieved.
The main part of this report highlights
improvements that are expected to
be adopted by current well control
training, examination and certication
bodies. However, management from oil
and gas operating companies, drilling
contractors and service companies
demonstrate continued support for the
recommendations in order to drive them
through to implementation.
The authors note that some of the
recommendations in the report already
exist within the industry or are under
development. Any such repetition was
intended to endorse support towards
consistent application throughout the
industry, the report says.
The WEC is part of a Global Reponse
Group (GIRG) formed by OGP in
response to the Macondo and Montara
well control incidents. Besides prevention,
GIRG addressed well control incident
management focused on intervention and
response issues.
Hard copies of the report were made
available at the recent EGM. Those not
attending will receive it in the post.
Security of energy supply
on the agenda at Security
meeting in Brussels
O
ver 20 members of the Security
Committee met in Brussels to
address the subject security of energy
supply at OGPs ofces on 02-03
October and co-hosted by GdF Suez.
Kevin Buckley of INPEX and Bill Forbes
of Woodside traveled from Australia to
attend. According to Chairman Jean-
Louis Kibort of Total, the attendance
reected the global reach of OGP
membership.
The meeting was structured to have a
range of external guest speakers give
their view on that topic, then for the
members of the Security Committee
to meet in a workshop to discuss the
topic and determine a strategic plan to
address the security issues of energy
supply in the oil & gas sector.
The speakers were:
Rachel Bonfante of OGP in Brussels;
Jose Perez, Policy Ofcer, DG Energy,
EU Commission;
Alexandros Yannis, European
External Action Service;
Paul Beat, Global Director, Control
Risks;
Dr Frank Umbach EUCERS, Kings
College London.
Prior to a group dinner, members visited
the Royal Museum of Belgian Armed
Forces and Military History in central
Brussels. It was a magnicent venue,
and, considering many of the committee
members have a military past, was like
letting children loose in a toy store,
says Stewart Fraser, Security & Health
Manager at OGP.
The dinner was opened with a speech
by Dr Jamie Shea, Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Emerging Security
Challenges NATO, who gave a
global view of the political issues and
international uncertainties that may affect
the security of energy supply in decades
to come.
The workshop developed several
action items to be addressed by task
forces; security management systems,
measurement, kidnapping, security in
operations.
It is worth mentioning that OGP staff
in Brussels provided excellent support
which led to the success of this event.
The next Security Committee meeting will
take place in Vienna in March 2013.
Environmental performance
Indicators report increases
transparency
I
n an effort to enable benchmarking
and increase transparency in the
upstream oil & gas industry, for the
past 13 years OGPs Environment
Committee has been collecting data
from member companies on an annual
basis. The latest edition of OGPs
Environmental Performance Indicators,
covering 2011 environmental data, is
now available.
continued on back page
Istanbul hosts OGP EGM
I
stanbul was the venue for OGPs EGM this month, and BP Turkey was the host company. The two-day event began on
Wednesday, November 7
th
, and took place at the centrally-located Intercontinental Ceylan Istanbul Hotel. It featured a
packed agenda for OGP members who were asked to review and endorse the 2013 budget and business plan, heard
presentations from all committees and were updated on OGPs work and accomplishments.
On the rst day attendees were addressed by TPAO Chairman and President Mehmet Uysal.
A full report will feature in next months newsletter.
Brad Corson, OGP Chairman opens proceedings Brad with TPAO Chairman & President Mehmet Uysal
Istanbul, a stunning host city
The participants of the nal day workshop
London offce: 209-215 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NL, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7633 0272 Fax: +44 (0)20 7633 2350
Brussels offce: 165 Bd du Souverain, B-1160 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 (0)2 566 9150 Fax: +32 (0)2 566 9159
Web: www.ogp.org.uk E-mail:reception@ogp.org.uk
A company limited by guarantee Registered in England, No. 1832064 VAT No. 241 240 903
www.ogp.org.uk
Recent & Forthcoming meetings
November
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08 09 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
December
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
01 02
03 04 05 06 07 08 09
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Committee Date
Electrical Standards Task Force 01 Nov
EGM 07-08 Nov
Geomatics Committee 12 Nov
Wells BOP Task Force 14 Nov
Gas from Shale Task Force 14 Nov
Geomatics P6 Task Force 21 Nov
Marine Strategy Task Force 26 Nov
Wells Committee 27-28 Nov
Material Standards Subcommittee 27-28 Nov
API/OGP International Standards Task Force 03-04 Dec
Instrumentation & Automation Subcommittee 04-05 Dec
API/OGP International Standards Task Force 11-12 Dec
Instrument Package Control Integration TF 13 Dec
Gas Work Group 14 Dec
Wells Committee 18 Dec
Wells Incident Database Task Force 19 Dec
Ofce Closed 25 Dec-01 Jan
The report covers information on
the upstream activities of 41 OGP
member companies working in 75
countries. Five of these companies are
reporting for the rst time. The data
have been aggregated at both global
and regional levels and are expressed
within 6 environmental indictor
categories:
Gaseous emissions
Energy consumption
Flaring
Aqueous discharges
Discharges of non-aqueous drilling
uids retained on cuttings; and
Spills of oil and chemicals
The report shows that, for every
thousand tonnes of hydrocarbon
production, participating companies
reported emissions of 133 tonnes of
carbon dioxide and 1.25 tonnes of
methane equating to 159 tonnes of
greenhouse gas, 0.5 tonnes of non-
methane volatile organic compounds,
0.2 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 0.4
tonnes of nitrogen oxide. These are
broadly similar to 2010 gures.
The participating companies consumed
on average 1.6 Gigajoules of energy
for every tonne of hydrocarbon
produced, a 7% increase compared
with the 2010 average. As in previous
years, the data indicate that onshore
production in 2011 was more energy
intensive than offshore production.
For every thousand tonnes of
hydrocarbons produced, 15.7
tonnes of gas was ared. This is an
improvement over 16.0 tonnes in 2010
and 17.6 tonnes in 2009. The reduction
is predominantly driven by major
infrastructure improvement projects in
Africa that increase the capability to
inject gas for reservoir maintenance
and to deliver gas to market. Reductions
in aring translate to reductions in CO
2

and other gaseous emission rates.
The average concentration of oil in
produced water discharged gures
for 2011 show a 10% reduction from
2010 gures. The average quantity of
oil discharged per unit of hydrocarbon
production decreased by 7%.
There were 35,481 tonnes of non-
aqueous base uids retained on
cuttings discharged to sea.
In 2011, participating companies
reported that the average quantity of
oil spilled was 7.9 tonnes per million
tonnes production.
To download the full document, OGP
Environmental Performance Indicators
2011 data, visit the publications page
of: www.ogp.org.uk.