Kelvin TOP-SET had a busy week at the beginning of the month with many of the team attending the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas.
Day 1 – Monday 2nd May saw OTC kick off in Houston. Kelvin TOP-SET began the event by hosting the highly successful UKTI Business Breakfast which was attended by over 200 people from the oil and gas industry.
The panel discussion topic for the meeting was “North American Deepwater Challenges & Opportunities”.
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The moderated discussion was chaired by Julie Wilson, Research Director-Global Exploration, Wood Mackenzie.
The panel members were:
- Chris Garcia, Mexico International Account Director and Deepwater Adviser, Schlumberger
- Paul Fulton, President, Statoil Canada
- David Ramsay, MD & President, Kelvin TOP-SET
Welcome remarks and the Introduction of the sponsor were made by Richard Turner, UKTI East Coast Regional Director.
The sponsor’s message was then delivered by David Ramsay, MD and President, Kelvin TOP-SET.
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A market update from each region followed and there was a high level of lively discussion and questions from the floor.
Day 1 – The OTC conference itself is still being well attended despite the general downturn in the market. Our on-site team reported that they felt that there were less visitors than previous years and there was slightly less “buzz in the aisles.”
Day 2 – Tuesday 3rd May at OTC saw a busy day for Kelvin TOP-SET at Booth #2063.
Harry, Ian and Bruce who were manning the booth were kept busy with a lot of interest shown in Kelvin TOP-SET courses. Interestingly, there were also many visitors to the booth who expressed that their companies currently had no investigation system in place, and that they were therefore interested in how implementing the TOP-SET system could help them to increase profitability and reduce incident rates.
Day 2 – Opening of the Malaysian Pavilion
David Ramsay, MD & President of Kelvin TOP-SET and Karen Hatler, Technical Support Manager attended a presentation by Muhammad Zamri Jusoh, VP, Malaysia Petroleum Management, Petronas, to mark the opening of the Malaysia Pavilion at OTC. Kelvin TOP-SET runs regular courses in Kuala Lumpur for clients such as Petronas so it was good to support the Malaysian companies at OTC and to learn more about current trends in the area.
Day 2 – General Observations; As expected, day 2 at OTC saw many more people come through the doors compared to day 1, however it was noted that the perceived volume of visitors was not as high as OTC 2015. This would seem to be due to the fall in global oil prices and the general mood in the oil and gas industry. Senior management of one major oilfield service company, were concerned that the recently announced collapse of the Halliburton/Baker Hughes merger, would reduce the appetite for future potential M & A’s, due to the billions of dollars in penalties which will have to be paid to the latter company, thus slowing consolidation in the industry.
Many of the exhibiting companies at OTC, that our team spoke with were, in general, down-beat about their near and medium term prospects, due to the continuing uncertainty over the oil price. A few spokesmen believed that the price may still slip back to around the $30 mark. Our team were also told that some companies are “following the money” – only bidding for high value available projects, in the hundreds of millions, and ignoring those in the tens of millions, as the latter will attract many smaller competitors, who may force prices to non-profit making levels.
Days 3 & 4 – Wednesday and Thursday at OTC saw more visitors flocking to OTC in Houston. Wood McKenzie’s Predictions Regarding the Oil Price Oil industry analysts Wood McKenzie, at a breakfast presentation for SDI, advised that oil prices may reach $64 per barrel by Q3 2017. However, they forecast no increase in rig activity, until the price stabilises. They predict that the price of oil may reach $70 by 2020.
Following on from a busy start on Monday and Tuesday, Kelvin TOP-SET experienced considerable sustained interest from companies who are “modernising and streamlining their business” anticipating continued lower oil prices. Many are looking for new ways to optimise their business performance, and increase their profitablility, by eliminating the amount of incidents in the workplace. Kelvin TOP-SET is well placed to assist.
General Observations Exhibitors at OTC 2016, although seeing some increase in visitor activity over Tuesday and Wednesday, were generally in agreement, that the level of business interest was down, compared to 2015 due to a continued squeeze on budgets resulting from lower oil prices.
Kelvin TOP-SET also featured on the front page of Offshore Industry News pre-show edition, with a full article on page 87.
It will be interesting to see what OTC 2017 brings!