OE is attending the Offshore Mediterranean Conference (OMC) in Ravenna next week. The event, of which OE is a media sponsor, is expected to be bigger than ever, with floor space increased 30% from 20,000sq m to 25,000sq m.
More than 14,000 people are expected to attend, with 687 exhibiting companies from 34 countries.
Ahead of the biannual show, held in Ravenna and expected to attract more than 14,000 visitors, OE got a chat with show program committee chairman Mario Chiaramonte (pictured).
OE: What are the key focuses for OMC 2015?
OMC 2015 conference will discuss all the most important topics of the upstream sector, covering the full spectrum of advanced and emerging technologies. Key focuses are on two subjects that are particularly hot for oil companies in this period: recovery factor increase and offshore developments in harsh and complex environments.
Recovery factor is still an issue for all the oil companies and to increase it is a way to add terrific value to their assets. In this frame, OMC 2015 has organized a workshop on enhance oil recovery to discuss not only technologies but also operational strategies to recover more oil from producing fields. As for offshore developments there is a sharp increase of papers dealing with this subject in this edition of OMC. All the different aspects, relevant to his subject, are presented in different dedicated sessions and the last day the workshop titled Offshore Regulations and Technologies: 5 years after Macondo is the opportunity to discuss what changed after this sad event and to measure progress of technology in this context.
OE: Do these areas differ compared to OMC 2013 ?
Recovery factor, as already said, was a key topic discussed in all the past OMC editions and it will probably be still in the spotlight in the next editions, because it is a complex theme and there is room for further improvements. Comparing OMC 2015 with the previous editions it is important to underline that there is a constant and significant increase in the average quality of submitted abstracts, this year the choice of the papers to include in the final program was very difficult. The program committee was really in troubles to discard high quality papers, but unfortunately not all of the 284 received abstracts can be accommodated in the oral and poster sessions.
OE: In what areas of technology development do you see the potential for the greatest strides in offshore upstream progress?
As mentioned before offshore complex developments is a hot topic for oil companies and central theme for OMC. This is a wide technological area including different aspects, full of complex challenges and where many further improvements are necessary. The subsea processing in offshore complex developments is becoming more and more often the adopted solution but the increasing difficulty of local conditions, for example artic environment, requires new very innovative solutions.
OE: How will OMC Ravenna help to progress these?
OMC is not only an opportunity to present and discuss new technological improvements, but also to share experiences, results and case histories. One of the main feature of this conference is the abundance of papers dealing with direct experiences in the field. In many presentations it is possible to learn not only about lab experiments, because field test results are very often the key part of the discussion. In the oil and gas industry field applications are essential to validate technology and to plan further improvements. The lab work is important but without reliable results, acquired in the field, it is impossible to go further in technology development. Papers, included in OMC 2015 program, are offering the discussion of many case histories, important pieces of knowledge for further technological improvements.
OMC is being held in Ravenna, March 25-27. To find out more go to www.omc2015.it
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