All out for OTC in Houston

Hydro went all out for the Offshore Technology Conference this year with big exhibits, receptions and presentations. The conference and exhibition was held in Houston, May 1-4.

The world’s largest international oil conference, OTC, is held annually in early May and is an important meeting place for the global oil business and supplier industry. Statistics show growing numbers of total visitors – from 4,200 in 1969, to 51,300 in 2005. This year’s conference theme was “New Depths, New Horizons.”

Key player

After the acquisition of the Housten-based oil and gas company Spinnaker Exploration, Hydro has become a major player in the Gulf of Mexico, and marked this with a greater presence at OTC than at any conferences in the past.

Hydro's 75 square meter stand in the exhibition hall focused primarily on development of the Ormen Lange gas field – from construction of the gas receiving plant at Aukra to the landfall of Norwegian gas at Easington, England.

Program with Hydro presentations

The conference opened Monday morning, May 1. That evening, Hydro's President and CEO Eivind Reiten welcomed invited guests at a reception held at The Houston Museum of Natural Science.

On Tuesday, May 2, a technical session presented as part of the conference program featured the Grane field, from discovery to production and the transport of heavy oil. Grane is Hydro’s first heavy oil field, and experiences from the operation are being used in Hydro’s focus on the Chinook field offshore Brazil. Hydro wanted to present itself at OTC as an interesting partner to jointly develop additional heavy oil fields worldwide.

On Wednesday, May 3, the head of Hydro's Gulf of Mexico business unit, Helge Hove Haldorsen, presented “Hydro utilizing its core values in deepwater partnerships” during a panel session entitled “Changing dynamics of deepwater ownership.”

Growing Norwegian participation

Norwegian participation at the OTC conference and exhibition has now become bigger than ever.

In addition to a few companies with their own exhibition stands, some 40 companies were presenting themselves at the joint, 1,000 square meter Norwegian exhibition stand.

• Hydro could be visited at stand no. 4255
  at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston