Kurt Abraham, Editor-in-Chief
Fig. 1. The Occasion Complicated Aberdeen (TECA), higher know to some as P&J Stay, web site of Offshore Europe. Picture: TECA.
Nicely, just a few days have passed by, and SPE Offshore Europe (OE) in Aberdeen (Fig. 1) is now a set of reminiscences. However, what to make of what was seen and heard in the course of the four-day convention and exhibition? There have been many alternative viewpoints, and, truthfully, many contradictions and hypocrisies.
First, a phrase in regards to the present, itself. When final held in 2023, OE attracted roughly 30,000 attendees, and there have been nice hopes that this determine can be exceeded this 12 months, to maybe as a lot as 35,000. As a substitute, there was nice disappointment when occasion organizer Reed Exhibitions introduced on late Friday, after the present ended, that attendance was solely 25,000. That’s not solely a failure to develop the present, it’s additionally a 17% discount from two years in the past, when OE was held for the primary time because the Covid pandemic. It’s additionally a far cry from the report OE attendance of 63,000 in 2013.
SPE officers appeared to be doing their finest to place a constructive spin on this 12 months’s OE, however the unhappy fact is that the lower in foot visitors must be disappointing and of nice concern. Accordingly, it’s no shock that SPE has introduced that OE in 2027 will probably be lowered to a three-day occasion from this 12 months’s four-day format. In distinction, latest phrase out of Stavanger is that OE’s alternating counterpart, ONS (Offshore Northern Seas), is already nearing a sell-out of exhibition area and is anticipating 60,000 to 70,000 attendees. So, what’s making the distinction? Learn additional down for what this editor thinks might be a key distinction.
Present flooring impressions. In the meantime, OE, itself, was well-executed, and the more-than-400 exhibiting firms did an excellent job in representing their varied specialties and product choices. From this editor’s perspective, it appeared like offshore wind was a bit muted from its prominence in 2023. In distinction, there appeared to be a considerably larger emphasis on conventional oil and gasoline expertise, together with tie-ins to CCS and Web Zero operations. This, little doubt, was a welcome facet to native and regional officers, who look like dismayed by the nationwide authorities’s attitudes on power and the North Sea specifically. Convention proceedings attended by this editor had been largely informative and lined cross-section of present upstream expertise points.
Political impression. Underlying all the things that went on at OE was the political state of affairs within the UK with regard to power. One simply can’t keep away from it creeping into most conversations amongst trade professionals. The state of affairs mainly boils right down to a nationwide administration that appears fairly hostile to grease and gasoline, notably to upstream operations within the UK North Sea. The administration of Prime Minister Kier Starmer continues to retain the surcharge levy on North Sea oil and gasoline manufacturing, even when many different nations have eradicated comparable taxation. One can solely assume that Starmer’s individuals are determined for the income to prop up the nationwide funds. However they’re killing off the previous golden goose for short-term achieve.
Fig. 2. Conservative Celebration Chief Kemi Badenoch. Picture: Official portrait.
As well as, the Starmer administration continues to implement a ban on granting new exploration licenses. So, operators haven’t any alternative to drill exploration wells from new tracts, the place they may strike just a few average discoveries. And allow us to not neglect the pretty stringent working guidelines for current manufacturing. Taken in whole, the UK’s North Sea regulatory surroundings is an excessive disincentive to further funding. The usually physique for the area is the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). Maybe they need to change the title to NTDA, for North Sea Loss of life Authority, as a result of that’s the place they’re headed.
Recognizing this actuality, it’s no surprise that Conservative Celebration Chief Kemi Badenoch (Fig. 2) entered the OE plenary on Sept. 2 together with her hair on fireplace, figuratively talking. She constructed her case for larger North Sea growth (and never much less) by noting that “oil and gasoline nonetheless account for three-quarters of UK power wants.” Moreover, mentioned Badenoch, Norway had its greatest discovery in 10 years, “whereas we’re leaving our sources untouched. We’re sabotaging ourselves and had the bottom oil manufacturing in [nearly 50 years]. We’ve acquired to get that oil and gasoline out of the bottom.”
And that, of us, illustrates the primary distinction between the Labour authorities and the Conservative opposition. One needs to inhibit growth in favor of limitless windmills, whereas the opposite favors utilizing extra of the confirmed oil and gasoline expertise to fulfill Britain’s power wants. This additionally circles again to the lament earlier talked about—that OE attendance was not solely up, it was down noticeably. And I might dare say that a lot of that decline will be traced to the present Starmer regime’s power coverage.
In contrast, the outlook for subsequent 12 months’s ONS present in Stavanger is brilliant, as a result of the federal government in Oslo is sensible sufficient to pursue a dual-track power technique—preserve oil and gasoline growth sturdy whereas additionally build up different energies. In different phrases, an “the entire above” coverage. What a distinction between Oslo and London. In the meantime, the oldsters in Aberdeen are struggling economically.
