Offshore Northern Seas ONS

Offshore Northern Seas is again gathering thousands of professionals in the city of Stavanger. A whole week is packed with presentations, talks, shows and entertainment. Whether you are visiting for the whole week or just for a day, there is no time to get bored - it’s time to get energized!

ONS Chief Kjell Ursin-Smith has been eager to market the focus on the young professionals prior to ONS 2002. But he has also been keen to underline that while young professionals are needed in order to enhance continuity within the industry, there is always a great need for experienced professional who can share their knowledge with their younger colleagues. In Stavanger there is ample chance for discussions and sharing of experience.

Co-operation
An important aspect for all delegates to the ONS is to network and enhance co-operation in the Northern Seas. Taking a lead position in that connection are the Norwegian and British Ministers, UK Energy Minister Brian Wilson and the Norwegian Petroleum and Energy Minister Einar Steensnæs They will make a joint announcement at the conference about North Sea Co-operation.

Innovation
Roughly 75 products and services have been nominated for the ONS Innovation Award 2002. Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik will present the prize at the ONS 2002 opening ceremony on 27th August.

‘We are pleased with the response,’ says Ursin-Smith. The international jury is still holding the door ajar for possible latecomers, so the number may still rise. The ONS Innovation Award was instituted in 1982, and has since established itself as an internationally prestigious prize in the oil, gas and energy industry.

‘Many of the winning solutions have proved very important for this industry,’ says Ursin-Smith. Nominees range from major oil companies to small specialist firms. An example of the former is Shell, which has submitted its zero emission solid oxide fuel (ZESOFC) solution. Designed to eliminate carbon emissions from fossil fuels without efficiency loss, it has been developed with Norwegian power generator Statkraft, Aker Kværner and Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. At the other end of the scale comes Easy Well Solution, one of the smallest companies to make a nomination with its swell packer device.

The swell packer device will also be exhibited at the Incubator Park section. It has been developed with Norsk Hydro’s Grane project in the North Sea to simplify inflow control in open-hole sand-controlled wells.

A newcomer to the Innovation Award competition is the Bergen-based Storm Weather Centre, which has nominated two of its services. One is weather on demand, which provides users with a forecast for any given location in the world in a matter of seconds. The other is a live weather forecast. It provides a dedicated weather brief live on tape via the internet.

Among the other prizes to be won at ONS are media prizes, and not least, the Best Stand Award. In 2000 Universal Sodhexo won with their simple, yet fascinating stand.

Female Speakers
ONS has each year invited women to make their mark on the conference and exhibition. Maybe it is a sign that the number of female managers is rising within the industry, because this year ONS has been successful in attracting even more women than previously to address the conference.

The chair of one of the sessions is Anne Drinkwater, who holds a high-profile post as managing director of BP Norge.

The first speaker Drinkwater will introduce is Kathleen Arthur, vice president of ChevronTexaco’s Gulf of Mexico deepwater business unit. Arthur, who previously headed up Chevron’s Norway subsidiary, will ponder how much oil and gas remain to be found in the Northern Seas. She will be followed by Hege Marie Wølneberg, senior engineer at ABB Offshore Systems, who will bring the meeting up to date on the development of subsea processing. Two more female speakers will address key issues in the parallel session. Anne Strømmen Lycke, section manager at Norsk Hydro, will talk on new commercial models for European gas supply, while the question of safety in the offshore industry will be tackled by Dr Helen Bolt, R&D director for Bomel Consultants.

International Opportunities
A valuable insight into the opportunities available for the international oil industry in prospective countries around the globe will be provided at the exploration promotion forum to be held on Wednesday and Thursday.

Delegations from key countries, headed by a government minister and including representatives of the national authorities, oil companies and suppliers, will describe their sectors and identify areas where foreign participation would be welcomed. Presentations by the delegations from Australia, Russia and Angola have been confirmed. So has the presence of CCOP, the Coordinating Committee for Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia. CCOP will have its own exhibition and conference, which will include contributions from all its member countries, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. There are also plans for talks by delegations from Azerbaijan, Iran and Nigeria, as well as Canada.

Art at ONS
Another tradition established at ONS is ‘the official artist’. This year Kjell Torriset has been chosen. He is a Norwegian painter living in Southern England.

He has created a lithograph that the ONS Foundation use on every kind of product needed to promote the 2002 event. Prints will also be presented to speakers and committee members.

Torriset exhibited at a gallery near Stavanger last year, and had a large retrospective at Oslo’s Astrup Fearnley Museum in 1999. He completed a decorative work, The Eyes, for the Oslo University Library in the same year.

The Oil Festival
Around the harbour area the 6th Oil Festival will provide three days packed with entertainment and enjoyment, according to Festival Manager Aase Tendenes.

From 27th -29th August, both ONS visitors and local residents can enjoy big open-air concerts with top performers, and the largest-ever Run for Fun road race, just to mention a taste the program.

The closing concert on Thursday evening will provide the musical peak of the festival. One of Norway’s best selling rock singers, Morten Abel, is the main attraction to this concert; which is free for all to attend.

The Stavanger Art Society is staging an exhibition of works by ONS artist Kjell Torriset. The Tsunami exhibition in the Art Lounge of the Tollpakkhuset building on the Skagenkaien quay, organised by Molitrix, highlights the work of six artists from the Norwegian coast. Galleri Sult on Strandkaien is presenting works by Indian artist Sujata Bajaj.

ONS 2000’s successful presentations by other energy-related cities during the festival are being repeated, with Ravenna, Tórshavn, Kristiansund, Florø, Haugesund and Bergen as the 2002 guests. Activities will also be staged in the festival area by the Norwegian Petroleum Museum.