OTC-'85 SPECIAL PREVIEW

May 6-9, 1985, Houston This year's 17th Annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) will take place at Houston's Astrodomain from Monday, May 6 through Thursday, May 9. OTC is an international technical meeting devoted to information exchange on offshore resources development. It is sponsored each year by 11 of the world's leading engineering and scientific associations, including The Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and the Marine Technology Society.

While focusing on frontier technology, this year's program of 252 papers in 41 sessions also addresses topics as diverse as safety, foundation behavior, seismic surveys, oceanography, and marine mining, among others.

Complementing the technical program this year will be an unmatched exhibition of products and services covering more than 25 acres of the Astrodomain complex. More than 2,000 companies—the world's major manufacturers of offshore- related equipment and services— will use OTC as a forum to unveil major improvements and innovations for handling present-day challenges as the industry moves to deeper waters and increasingly hostile conditions.

OTC '85 takes place during the "Year of the Ocean," declared by the United States to increase awareness of the complex issues involved in reaching the full potential of all types of marine development. This is the same premise on which OTC was founded and continues on a worldwide basis—improved offshore technology and development of resources in an environmentally sound manner through cooperation of all major engineering and scientific disciplines.

For four days some 65,000 engineers, scientists, and managers from 90 nations will hear outstanding technical presentations and view an array of technical equipment and services available for today's offshore challenge.

Top petroleum industry executives will address the important issues facing deepwater operators in the opening general session, "The Challenge of Deep Water." Leading off the 2^-hour session on Monday morning, May 6, will be John F.

Bookout, president of Shell Oil Company, who will present an overview of the deepwater challenge.

Next, the managing director for British Petroleum Exploration, Basil R. Butler, will discuss worldwide deepwater exploration prospects.

Patrick J. Early, senior vice president of production with Amoco Production Company, will comment on deepwater drilling systems.

Harry J. Longwell, vice president of production with Exxon Company U.S.A., will discuss deepwater production systems; and F.E.

"Tut" Ellis, executive vice president with Conoco Inc., will address the economics of deepwater exploration and production.

OTC Awards Lymon C. Reese, professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas, and Hudson Matlock, vice president for research and development with The Earth Technology Corporation of Long Beach, Calif., will share honors as joint recipients of the 1985 OTC Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals.

Through their research and engineering practice, the pair has made significant contributions to the development of soils and foundation technology and its application to offshore platform design. Computer programs and soil/pile interaction criteria they developed years ago still form the basis for most pile foundation design practices. Prof.

Reese and Mr. Matlock will accept their honor during the OTC Awards Luncheon on Monday, May 6, in the Astrohall Ballroom.

Topical Luncheons Registrants at OTC '85 will have an opportunity for informal discussions with offshore experts during a series of five Topical Luncheons on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 7 and 8. These popular luncheons feature speakers' comments followed by open question-and-answer periods.

Tuesday's luncheon topics are "The Hutton TLP—First of a Kind" at the Shamrock Hilton Hotel, and "Meeting the Technology Challenge in the Canadian Arctic" at the Marriott Astrodome Hotel. In the first, L.B. "Buck" Curtis, vice president of production engineering services for Conoco Inc., will emphasize two aspects of the Hutton platform's development: the "people" factor, including ways to coordinate work between partners, government approvals, project personnel, and contractors in such a novel undertaking; and the operations factor, including future types and applications of tension leg platforms.

In the day's second luncheon, John Loh, manager of frontier development for Gulf Canada, will explain production and drilling programs uniquely developed for use in the Canadian Arctic.

One of three Wednesday luncheon topics is "The Move of Exploration North of the 62nd Parallel and the Accompanying Development of Deepwater Technology" at the Shamrock Hilton. Christopher Fay, director of exploration and production for A/S Norske Shell, will review the technology needed to develop deepwater and hostile areas off Norway, including technology used during the Troll field development and in the Tromsoeflaket and Haltenbanken regions.

Fred Shumaker, vice president of Alan C. McClure Associates Inc., will moderate a second luncheon on "Deepwater Production" at the Marriott Astrodome. Panelists will include: Bruce Collipp, engineering advisor for Shell Offshore Inc.; Travis Hutchinson, president of Offshore Production Systems Inc.; and Robert Walker, general manager of Brown & Root's Marine Engineering Division. Each of the speakers will discuss his perspective on deepwater production predictions for the next few years.

At the Shamrock Hilton, a third Wednesday luncheon will feature J.D. d'Ancona, director general for Offshore Supply Office, U.K. Department of Energy. His talk on "United Kingdom Continental Shelf—The Second Decade" will include plans for developing the U.K.'s offshore industry to its potential as an international supplier.