Press releases
CTCE breaks new ground
The second SPE Caspian Technical Conference and Exhibition (CTCE), the largest technical conference of its type in Azerbaijan, has come to a close after three packed days, оver 500industry professionals passed through the doors of the Fairmont Hotel, Flame Towers in Baku to hear from speakers drawn from the highest echelons of government, operators, service providers, advisory firms, and energy research companies, including Akif Alizadeh, President of the National Academy of Sciences, Natig Abbasov, Deputy Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Academician Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh, First Vice-President, SOCAR and Martyn Smith, Vice-President Reservoir Development, BPto name a few.
Twelve technical sessions across the conference programme focussedon the issues faced by the exploration and production (E&P) industry in Azerbaijan and the broader Caspian region. Thirty-six oral papers and 25 posters were presented, covering drilling and completions, reservoir description and dynamics, projects facilities and construction, production and operations, HSSE and social responsibility and management and information.
Over the three days of the event, three high-level topical panel debates also took place, with senior participation from SOCAR, BP, ExxonMobil (George Bridges, Global Contract and Materials Manager), TANAP (Saltuk Düzyol, General Manager), TAP, Schlumberger (Gokhan Saygi, President Russia and Central Asia), KMG (John Denis, General Director SRI), Total (Sudaba Khalilov, HR Manager) and Halliburton among others.
Themes addressed in the panel sessions included the factors behind oil production costs, the oil and gas potential of the southern Caspian Sea, the region’s major mid-stream projects the Trans-Adriatic (TAP) and Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) pipelines and their role in strengthening European energy security, and the use of new technologies in Azeri oil and gas fields.
The commitment of senior officials to the event was evident in a prestigious VIP reception held in Baku on the eve of the event. The reception was attended by the following six foreign ambassadors:
- H.E. Ambassador Irfan Siddiq (UK)
- H.E. Ambassador Bard Svendsen (Norway)
- H.E. Ambassador Roslan Rahman (Malaysia)
- H.E. Ambassador Rodrigo Labardini (Mexico)
- H.E. Ambassador Tsuguo Takahashi (Japan)
- H.E. Ambassador Daniel Ciobanu (Romania)
The reception was sponsored by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), a UK government department, and was attended by over 100 officials and senior executives from the main oil and gas companies present in Azerbaijan and beyond. Six ambassadors also attended the conference itself.
Reflecting the immense importance of developing the next generation of oil and gas engineers, there was also a strong school and university-focused strand to this year’s event. During the Regional Student Development Summit, over 50 students from 21 universities across the region participated in a mixture of technical sessions, soft skills courses and site visits.
On the final day, 47 primary and secondary school teachers from Azerbaijan and beyond took part in a free interactive workshop, part of SPE’s energy education programme energy4me. Energy4me is aimed at providing teachers with comprehensive, objective information about the scientific concepts of energy and its global significance, while discovering the world of oil and natural gas production.
Speaking at the workshop, Emrin Amrullayev, Head of Department/ Education Development Programs at the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan touched on the importance the Azeri government attaches to this kind fo learning, and how it supports it.
This year, CTCE was co-located with the IX Azerbaijan International Geophysical Conference (organised by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), National Committee of Geophysicists of Azerbaijan (NCGA), and Azerbaijan National Geophysicists (AMGK) as well as the International Conference organised by the Azerbaijan Society of Petroleum Geologists (ASPG) and European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE LC Azerbaijan). All three events enjoyed a successful three days, thanks to the successful collaboration between the three associations, providing the region’s oil and gas industry with its first all-encompassing technical conference.
The Caspian Technical Conference and Exhibition, hosted by SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic), and co-hosted by BP, enjoyed the support of both the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Education in Azerbaijan.It followed last year’s successful inaugural edition, which took place in Astana, Kazakhstan.
There is immense potential for the oil and gas industry in the Caspian. Events such as CTCE help oil and gas companies and other regional stakeholders to work more closely together, which is how this potential will best be realised.
In Azerbaijan, SPE had an active but relatively small membership going into the conference, which it was looking to develop. As a direct result of the event, 200 new professional members joined, doubling SPE’s membership in Azerbaijan at a stroke.
SPE would like to thank this year’s sponsors SOCAR, BP, Baker Hughes, Caspian Geophysical, Chevron, ENGIE, ExxonMobil, Halliburton, INPEX, Nobel Oil, Petronas, Schlumberger, Statoil, TCO, Total and UKTI. The American Chamber of Commerce in Azerbaijan was a supporting association.
If you were unable to attend the conference, the papers can be downloaded from OnePetro and any questions on the 2015 event or the 2016 event should be directed to Phil Chandler, Senior Manager, Sales & Business Development at SPE – pchandler@spe.org
We will look forward to seeing petroleum industry at our next technical event in Kazakhstan in 2016!
About the Society of Petroleum Engineers
The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) is a not-for-profit professional association whose members are engaged in energy resources development and production. SPE serves more than 143,000 members in 147 countries worldwide. SPE is a key resource for technical knowledge related to the oil and gas exploration and production industry and provides services through its publications, events, training courses, and online resources at www.spe.org.