Håland: 2013 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference to focus on technology

By Joanne Liou, associate editor

It’s not too late to register for the 2013 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition, 5-7 March in Amsterdam. “This is the premiere place for people involved in drilling and wells to meet and maintain their personal networks, as well as learn about the latest in the technologies within drilling a well,” said 2013 Drilling Conference chairman Øystein Arvid Håland, head of drilling & well for Statoil and a senior representative for SPE.

This year, the conference committee decided to forgo an overall theme for the event, as well as multiple plenary sessions. Instead, the conference will focus on technology topics critical to the well construction process, such as drilling automation, tubulars, zonal isolation and wellbore placement, and will conduct one plenary session, “Delivering Wells in a Critical World,” on 6 March.

While the drilling industry will already be familiar with many of the technical session topics, the program committee selected them because they will help to catalyze performance through enhanced operational integrity. “We think that the best that the industry can do to convince both the decision makers, as well as the public opinion, is to come out with facts,” Mr Håland said. “We, in the industry, have facts that we are not able to share with those groups, and consequently, there are a lot of feelings that are prevailing and forming the basis for the decisions, especially in the issues of allowing fracking on land in the US and in other places in Europe. We have a lot of facts that show that we have control of the risks in our industry, and we should be better at sharing them.”

The decision to hold only one plenary session at the conference was made so as to allow for more time for technical presentations and for attendees to build and reinforce personal networks, Mr Håland said. “That’s what we really tried to pave the ground for,” he commented. “We are confident that we have selected the best papers, and we also will have quite a few posters and stands where different companies will present themselves.” The conference technical program includes more than 100 papers and 37 e-Posters.

Register to attend and learn more about the 2013 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference.