Oil experts from industry and academia will debate the challenges to extracting the North Sea’s remaining reserves at a conference in Aberdeen this week.
The list of speakers includes top petroleum economist Professor Alex Kemp, Shell’s UK director for upstream, Paul Goodfellow and Amec Foster Wheeler’s group president for northern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States, John Pearson.
The event, organised by Aberdeen University, will take place at the King’s Conference Centre on Thursday.
Prof Kemp will talk about the impact of the support package revealed by Chancellor George Osborne in last month’s Budget.
Mr Osborne announced tax cuts amounting to about £1billion over five years for the oil and gas sector, including scrapping Petroleum Revenue Tax and halving the supplementary charge.
The Budget also confirmed the £20million for a second round of seismic surveys announced by David Cameron in Aberdeen in January.
The surveys are aimed at reinvigorating North Sea drilling, which is at lowest level since the beginning of the industry in the 1960s.
John Scrimgeour, director of the Aberdeen Institute of Energy at the university, will chair a panel discussion at the conference.
Mr Scrimgeour said: “This is shaping up to be a stimulating and fascinating consideration of the many issues and challenges facing the sector at this time.
“We are confident that we have created the very first conference of this kind, where a range of speakers from academia and industry will debate the major legal, organisational and technical issues, many of which have not yet been discussed or debated in sufficient detail, and are not yet common knowledge.
“The conference will offer delegates a significant opportunity to hear from key experts, network with fellow colleagues and get involved in the key areas of discussion.”
Other speakers include Graeme Young from CMS Cameron McKenna, Derek Leith from Ernst & Young, the Oil and Gas Authority’s director of exploration and production
Gunther Newcombe, and Ian Philips from the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre.
Greg Gordon from the university’s law school will use his presentation to call for greater clarity in the laws governing the recovery of North Sea oil and gas.
Places can be booked on the university’s website for £250.
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