IN THE NEWS / First Frontier Conference
The Evening Telegram
10/5/98
When the global oil patch wants a major trade show, it goes to Houston. For offshore production, it's Aberdeen or Stavanger.
Now Newfoundland consultant Mark Shrimpton and 20 local sponsors are hoping to add a third destination to the list — St. John's, where industry professionals will meet to discuss oil exploration in frontier regions.
Shrimpton is helping organize “Lessons from Frontier Regions,” probably the world's first frontier conference, scheduled for Oct. 25-28 in St. John's.
A frontier region is a new area of exploration, such as offshore areas near the Falkland Islands, where four exploration wells have been drilled; St. Pierre-Miquelon, which will be drilled next year, Faroe Islands; Ireland; Vietnam; Pakistan; Sakhalin in eastern Russia; and of course, Newfoundland.
With Hibernia pumping, offshore Newfoundland has become one of the more advanced frontier regions, so it makes sense to hold the frontier conference here, Shrimpton said.
There's even an optional helicopter flight and tour of the Hibernia platform. However, the five-and-a-half-hour costs $2,875.00 — but it does include a “lavish lunch.”
“The idea is to bring the oil industry, governments, environmentalists and small business together to share the lessons learned so far and provide business opportunities for all players,” Shrimpton said. “We decided we would create a forum where experts on frontier regions could get together and learn from each other.”
One of the conference's focuses is environmental protection, and the founder of Dalhousie's International Ocean Institute Elisabeth Mann Bourgese, will chair a session on corporate ethics
Shrimpton, a consultant who has been involved in the offshore oil industry since the early 1970s, expects about 250 to 300 delegates for the inaugural conference. He is hoping to make it a biannual event.
The St. John's conference is sponsored by NewTel, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Tatham Offshore Canada, Hibernia, Petro-Canada, Environment Canada, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador among others. |
