Greater Concern About Investment, Skill Shortages
Than Oil Production Peak

A panel of oil-industry executives presented their views on the possibility of an imminent peak in oil production yesterday at the opening session of the 2005 Offshore Europe (OE) conference.

After the presentations, panel chairman Andrew Gould, Chairman and CEO of Schlumberger, and chairman of this year's OE conference, said of the meeting highlights, "The consensus among all of the panel participants, which include national oil companies, super majors and independents, is that nobody considers that there is a shortage of oil, and there is no concern that we're about to reach peak oil. The biggest single shared concern is the shortage of skilled professionals to do the work, partly because the oil industry has been depressed for a number of years."

Panel members included Mahmoud Abdul-Baqi, vice president Exploration, Saudi Aramco; Tom Botts, executive vice president-Europe, Shell International Exploration and Production; Nigel Hares, executive vice president Frontier and International Operations, Talisman Energy; Luis F. Vierma, vice president E&P, PDVSA (Venezuela); Dave Blackwood, director and business unit leader-Developing Assets Business Unit, BP; Michel Bènèzit, vice president Northern Europe, Total; and Malcolm Wicks, MP Minister for Energy, UK.

Key to meeting the energy demands of the future is investment in technology that also addresses the paucity of next-generation exploration professionals.

For BP, technology investment is coming in the form of automated reservoir control. "The offshore field of the future will be remotely operated, highly automated, with minimal environmental footprint," said Blackwood, adding, "If we can actually manage to control the Mars Rover from Earth, surely we should be able to control an offshore oil field from onshore."

Dr. Vierma summarized the opinions expressed by his panel colleagues; "We believe there is plenty of oil already discovered, and plenty of oil yet to be discovered. And we agree that the major reserves are in the Middle East."

From the Venezuelan perspective, he added, "Oil in this century has to be different from last century. We need to care about the future of the planet."

Posted 07/09/05

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