Special Sessions

Recently the whole world is digitising in many aspects and forms in both personal and professional environments. Digitisation is not an option but the way forward and delaying it will only keep us behind in terms of development.

In the business world, there are companies that have flourished and others that have collapsed because of digitisation. The kind of goods and services, payment methods, logistics, and in general, economic factors have changed a lot in the business world after digitisation.

Offshore exploration and production of oil and gas is one of the most prominent business activities in the E&P sector. Capital projects such as subsea infrastructure, offshore platforms, pipelines, and production facilities span the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australasia and involve billions of dollars of investment in creating the infrastructure required to extract and transport resources to global markets.

Successful offshore E&P activities have required collaboration between operators, governments, oilfield services and technology companies to manage risk and cost, identify and implement good planning and decision frameworks to extract maximum returns from the value chain, and innovate to enhance performance, remove barriers, and tap new resources.

This session will consider:

• Areas of key successes in the offshore sector including seismic, drilling and subsea/surface facilities in enhancing project viability and lessons learnt
• Trends and innovations which are aiding to further improve commercialisation of offshore resources (deep and shallow)
• Key challenges to operators, governments, and service/technology providers which need to be given consideration when embarking on offshore exploration, development, and production activities
• Frameworks for planning, risk management, and front-end loading by operators for offshore projects
• Government and regulatory experiences in contributing to sustainable growth in offshore resources development

By 2025, the Gen Y, also called millennials, are expected to make 25% of the workforce. And the new Gen Z is expected to enter the workforce this year. The inclusion of these new segments in the workforce, challenges and motivates the leadership to create a path for sustainability, and especially so in the energy sector, where a huge transformation is taking place and the new generations will have to lead the roadmap. New and creative ways of fully engaging the younger workforce need to be in place, taking into consideration their very different styles of motivation, communication, learning, and leading.

The mix of digital savvy with digital natives opens opportunities for talent management, understanding that Gen Z craves innovation and entrepreneurship, and are extremely comfortable at multitasking. A much shorter attention span, enhanced creativity, innovative approaches to problems, and incredible self-reliance and pragmatism, are characteristics that call for a reshaping of professional development plans for new hires and the young generation at work.

The speakers will share their insights on how career development works in their organisations in this new environment, addressing what new approaches or tools are enabling this transformation, focusing on what role did technology play to embrace all styles co-existing at the workplace, with a special focus on their approach to Gen Z.

Oil and gas operators and suppliers feel an obligation to strive for gender diversity in all areas of their business, it’s of social importance. But beyond that, there are vital business drivers, too. There is a shortage of qualified workers in our industry, particularly in engineering, scientific and technical disciplines. As women comprise more than half our population, gender diversity in the workforce can be achieved through manpower planning and policing implementation, making it a requirement in all future oil and gas developments.

As part of the oil industry efforts to attract more females with backgrounds in engineering, analytics and IT among others, we need to promote the transformative role of technology. The industry should highlight that new automated systems and easier-to-operate equipment have removed the argument that it is too physically demanding or culturally inappropriate for women to work in the field.

The introduction of new technologies offers opportunities for new types of professions such as data engineers, data scientists, data analysts, IT professionals.

In an increasingly technology-driven world, the oil and gas industry is changing in two fundamental ways. Firstly, with majority of the world’s ‘easy oil’ already exhausted, the importance of utilising sophisticated technologies to find and produce tomorrow’s hydrocarbons is becoming increasingly imperative.

Secondly, high profile disasters have resulted in a significant shift in the expectations of the oil and gas industry in regards to safety, environmental stewardship, and human welfare. Thus, in the face of these challenges, technology and innovation will play a pivotal role in the success or failure of the future of oil and gas firms. Therefore, to answer the question of “how can oil and gas companies succeed in an industry where supply is limited and expectations are high?”, it is through investing in R&D to drive innovation and create new and improved technologies. Several international and national oil companies have increased their spending on R&D dramatically over the past years, which has correlated with higher stock prices.

In this special session, speakers will share their views of their current R&D models and efforts, highlighting their successful experiences and future expected outcomes.

The dynamics of professional interactions, influence, power, politics, and leadership styles at work shape an intricate net of challenges for any professional at any stage of their career. Nevertheless, this net also offers opportunities for advancing individual careers and corporations into new heights. This special session is composed by a number of leaders selected or associated with the BML committee of the SPE and beyond.

These leaders will address the main traits, skills and attributes to be developed by professionals in energy to advance a successful career, for technical or managerial purposes. They will share their insights on this topic, using their global experience in forging leaders for complex organisations, especially focusing on oil and gas.

BML is an SPE initiative to foster the development of non-technical skills in the membership, which are considered vital to advance a career in oil and gas. Formerly called the soft skills committee, the role of the BML committee is to provide venues for professional growth in addition to technical development opportunities. The BML international committee is also charged with identifying gaps between the nontechnical skills that members need and those currently provided by SPE, and making recommendations to fill these gaps.