washington report - noia

1120 G Street, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20005 Tel 202-347-6900 Fax 202-347-8650 www.noia.org

washington reportvolume XXXvii, Number 11 November 1, 2009

NOIA’s mission is to secure

reliable access to the nation’s

valuable offshore energy

resources in order that they

may be developed, produced

and supplied in an environ-

mentally responsible manner.

special - noia fall meeting issueoctober 8-10 - colorado springs, colorado

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Despite frigid and icy conditions, represen-tatives from member companies gathered at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colorado October 8-10 to discuss key in-dustry issues during the 2009 NOIA Fall Meeting.

Featured Speakers

Ben SteinActor, author and economist Ben Stein en-tertained the NOIA membership following dinner on Thursday, October 8.

In between jokes, Ben professed his ad-miration for the oil and gas industry and praised its energy and economic contribu-tions to America.

At the end of the evening, upon request, he in-dulged the crowd with his famous “roll call” scene from Ferris Buel-ler’s Day Off.

Mort KondrackeVeteran journalist Mort Kondracke deliv-ered “A View From Washington” following breakfast on Friday, October 9.

Kondracke opened by stating that in his opinion President Obama has taken on too much too soon, and should have a narrow-er focus during his first term in office.

According to Kondracke, the biggest failure of the Obama Administration thus far is the failure to keep the campaign promise to re-pair the vicious bipartisanship in Congress.

Kondracke pointed to a recent poll show-ing 86% of Democrats support Obama while only 20% of Republicans support him -- a bigger gap than Bush experienced. “Obama is becoming a bigger political po-larizer than Bush,” Kondracke said.

Turning to energy policy, Kondracke re-minded the audience that while the Demo-crats are fiercely focused on wind, solar and thermal power, renewable sources will make up only 10% of the nation’s domestic energy in 20 years.

Peter Bergen

noia welcomes new member

forum oilfield technologieshouston, texas

mcgriff, seibels & williams of texas, inc.houston, texas

seahawk drilling, inc.houston, texas

Featured Speakers.....1-2

industry Panel............3-4

Health, Safety, Security & environment Committee....................4

Government Affairs Committee....................4

liz birnbaum Speech....5

reception Photos......6-9

Public Affairs & education Committee.....................10

Technology Policy Committee..............5&10

Finance Committee......10

membership Committee..................10

NoiA elects incoming President......................11

NoiA and NeeD Hold energy Awareness Workshop.......................12

in this issue

2

Bryce explained that scientific and mathe-matic illiteracy are to blame for Americans being so bamboozled about energy reality. He pointed out that one coal mine provides 75% of the energy provided by all the solar sources in the United States as a means of underscoring the scale of the new sources of energy that must be found.

He believes the U.S. and the world cannot stop using oil nor coal, but he does envision that increasing cleaner sources of energy, such as natural gas and nuclear will help solve global warming.

In conclusion, Bryce said that the U.S. must give up on the notion of energy inde-pendence and embrace energy interdepen-dence.

Industry PanelThis year’s industry panel focused on the “Challenges & Opportunities in a Post-Moratoria Environment.”

The panel was moderated by Christopher Seaver, former NOIA chairman and Direc-tor, Oil States International; and composed of Dave Lawrence, Executive Vice Presi-dent Exploration & Commercial, Shell En-ergy Resources Company; Larry Dicker-son, President & CEO, Diamond Offshore Drilling; Jack Moore, President & CEO, Cameron; and Robert Deason, President & CEO of J. Ray McDermott.

For those speakers that used powerpoint, presentations are available on the NOIA website.

CNN National Security Analyst Peter Ber-gen gave NOIA members “An Insiders Look at the Changing Global Terror Threat” fol-lowing lunch on Friday, October 9.

Bergen said that the greatest threat to Europe and the United States comes from “home-grown terrorists.” He drew distinc-tions, however, between Europe, where Muslim minorities feel segregated and the Unites States, where better integration into society as a whole has led to Ameri-can Muslims rejecting Al-Qaeda’s recruit-ing advances.

However, Bergen said that future targets of Al-Qaeda include soft targets such as oil and gas facilities.

Bergen also believes that Al-Qaeda has ideologically affected the Taliban and that the two terrorist groups have become more closely aligned since 9/11. Bergen said the Afghan government and military must be built up to defend against the Taliban, which is 20,000 strong.

Robert BryceFollowing breakfast on Saturday, October 10, author and journalist Robert Bryce spoke on his book, “Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusion of Energy Indepen-dence.”

Bryce lamented the current conventional wisdom that says we must move toward decarbonization of the economy. Quipping that electric cars are the “next big thing and always will be,” Bergen noted that in fact, oil is here to stay.

noia fall meeting summary


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Peter Bergen

Robert Bryce

noia staff

Tom FryPresident

emily TonerAssistant to the President

Franki Stuntz Chief Administrative Officer and Director, Member Development

Ann Chapman Director, Conferences

michael Kearns Director, External Affairs

Nicolette Nye Director, Public Affairs andEditor, Washington Report

Jon HrobskyDirector, Policy & Government Affairs

Jeff vorbergerDirector, GovernmentRelations

washington report

3

continue to play out over the next decade,” he said.

“Why our current government wants to create an environment that kills an indus-try that contributes so much to our econo-my is beyond me,” he said.

Jack MooreJack Moore also took an international view of the industry, and listed (in order) West Africa, Brazil, Gulf of Mexico, the Asia-Pacific region and the North Atlantic as the places where the most money is be-ing spent on oil and gas exploration and development.

He said the majority of the new, big discov-eries are in ultra deep water and, as in the case of the lower-tertiary play in the Gulf of Mexico, as far as 250 miles from shore.

He listed (in order) BP, Chevron, BHP and Shell as spending the most on exploration and development in the Gulf of Mexico.


noia fall meeting summaryDave Lawrence During his remarks, Dave Lawrence pointed out that despite the lifting of the presidential withdrawal and the end of congressional moratoria, a de-facto mora-toria against expanded offshore oil and gas leasing is still in place on most of the outer continental shelf in the form of regulatory, permitting and legal challenges.

“At Shell we expect energy demands to more than double in the first half of this century,” he said. “Current supply cannot keep up with demand, and there is no easy oil. We want to invest, but we are delayed from investing,” he said.

“We could all use another Gulf of Mexico,” he said, “and we are hoping the Alaska OCS will be that.” Lawrence said that Shell has invested $3 billion dollars in 420 offshore leases in Alaska that could pro-vide 356,000 additional jobs and increase U.S. domestic oil and gas reserves.

Lawrence said that like it or not, climate change and decarbonization are the po-litical issues of the day and the offshore industry must work together to address them in a constructive manner.

Larry Dickerson The industrialization of China and India were a focal point for Larry Dickerson’s presentation. He said the industrializa-tion of the two nations will continue to up energy demand and will result in higher oil and gas prices and ignite a boom.

“The negative impacts of taking this in-dustry out of the U.S. and overseas will


The Industry Panel (L-R) - Moderator Christopher Seaver, and panelists Dave Lawrence, Larry

Dickerson, Jack Moore, and Robert Deason

4


noia fall meeting summaryMoore said the challenges of producing these hard to reach plays are immense, both technologically and economically, but that the prize is equally huge.

Robert DeasonFocusing on some of the current challeng-es facing the offshore industry, Robert Deason said that of the 17,000 McDermott employees, jut 5% are U.S. citizens. In ad-dition, 95% of McDermott’s business comes from foreign sources.

Deason sees “extreme government inter-ference” as a major domestic challenge to the offshore industry and listed OCSLA manning requirements, reinterpretation of the Jones Act, draft income tax legisla-tion, and an aggressive administration as examples.

As far as international challenges, Deason listed protectionism, unclear tax and cus-toms requirements, ethics and compliance issues, and problems enforcing interna-tional contracts as examples.

Health, Safety, Security and Environment Committee (HSSE)

In keeping with the practice of the past several years, the Committee used its time slot at the Fall Meeting to showcase the project that won the Safety-in-Seas Award the previous spring. Jim Doré and Rich-ard Richards of Global Industries took the stage to profile their company’s hurricane restoration projects following the storms of 2005.

Looking at the storms’ aftermath as a teachable moment, Global Industries con-

sciously entered into the wellhead plug and abandonment (P&A) market, developing partnerships, processes and technologies to allow for safe and timely removal of fall-en structures and sealing of wellheads.

Global profiled one specific project, high-lighting that they had worked 509 project days and involved 198 personnel, plugging 43 wellheads after 754 saturation bell dives and 480.039 man-hours. All of this was accomplished without a single record-ed lost-time case or recordable incident.

The presentation is available on the NOIA website for anyone interested in reviewing it.

Government Affairs Committee

Doug LambornThe Government Affairs Committee ses-sion featured Congressman Doug Lam-born (R-CO), who is the top Republican on the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources and also represents the Colorado Springs area.

Congressman Lamborn’s remarks centered on his desire for increased access to oil and gas production on federal lands, both on-shore and offshore.

He discussed his efforts on the Natural Re-sources Committee to work with a biparti-san group of members in finding common ground to achieve such access goals, while combating a bill from Chairman Nick Ra-hall (D-WV) that would impede offshore development.


Congressman Doug Lamborn

(R-CO)

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noia fall meeting summaryLamborn also commented on the Adminis-tration’s ongoing deliberations with respect to a Five Year Plan, while citing favorable public comments calling for increased OCS access and imploring MMS to put forward a robust plan in a timely manner.

Lamborn also took several questions from NOIA members, and concluded by ques-tioning whether the current Administra-tion would put forward a new Five Year Plan before 2012.

Liz BirnbaumMMS Director Liz Birnbaum addressed NOIA executives later in the day after at-tending Congressman Lamborn’s session, and began her remarks by assuring the audience that her agency would complete a new Five Year Plan before the current Plan lapses, while also highlighting the agency’s focus on encouraging offshore re-newable energy projects.

Birnbaum also responded to several ques-tions, including the status of the Depart-ment’s environmental review of the cur-rent Five Year Plan as mandated by a recent court decision.

Birnbaum said the review of relative envi-ronmental sensitivities with respect to off-shore planning areas had been completed and was now awaiting review and approv-al from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar be-fore being submitted to the court.

Public Affairs and Education Committee Public Affairs and Education Committee (PAEC) Chairman Galen Cobb introduced guest speaker Monte Lutz, Senior Vice President at Edelman.

An expert on social media, Monte gave a very well-received presentation on how new media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can be used by industry to eas-ily and economically facilitate both more targeted and broader communication with policy makers at the national, state and regional levels as well as with the public at large. The presentation is available on the NOIA website.

The PAEC will form a subcommittee on Social Media to determine how NOIA will move forward with social media.

The Technology Policy CommitteeExecutive Committee Liaison Peter S. Atkinson, President of Global Industries, chaired the meeting on behalf of Commit-tee chairman Thomas Chance. The com-mittee received a report on the lunch and learn presentations that were held in Sep-tember from Emily Toner of NOIA.

The lunch and learn presentations, which were given in New Orleans, LA and Hern-don, VA, focused on “Deepwater Produc-tion in the Gulf of Mexico: What to build and how to monitor.” The speakers were representatives of Mustang Engineering, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, Shell E&P Company and Fugro Structural Monitoring.

Specific topics ranged from an overview of deepwater production systems to spars, TLPs and structural monitoring of fixed leg platforms. The presentations were very well received in both locations, with many audience members requesting that they continue in the future.



Liz Birnbaum

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John & Cynthia Nesser, Kristine Nguyen & David Roquemore,

J. Ray McDermott

Kurt Hoffman, Seahawk Drilling; Bob Warren, Pride Interna-

tional; Randy Stilley, Seahawk Drilling; Anne Warren, Pride

International

Kenny & Sheila Lang, Ridgewood Energy; Bill Flores, Houston

Energy LP; Jim Wicklund, Carlsen Capital LLC

Doss & Sally Bourgeois, Plains Exploration Company; Joe Wilson,

NATCO

Maria McEvoy, Oceaneering International; Dagmar Deason, J.

Ray McDermott; Maxann Collins, Oceaneering International

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Chris & Evelyn Orth, Tidewater Inc.

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Bob & Alison Hogan, AmerCable Incorporated; Bill New, New In-

dustries; Cindy Taylor, Oil States International; Cornelius Dupre,

Dupre Interests; Allan Taylor, Oil States International

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Robert Gwinn, Shane Guidry, Chad Verret, Samantha Miller, Belle

Bayede, Cheryl Verret, Harvey Gulf International Marine

Larry & Jan Rigdon, Gulfmark Offshore; Bruce Ross, Dorado

Energy partners

Peter Atkinson, Global Industries; Galen Cobb, Halliburton; Roy

Markum, Pennwell; Rusty Meador, NOIA Secretary

Marilene Taylor, Tidewater; Debbie Moore, Cameron; Susan

Davis, Offshore Magazine

Rene Le Jeune, Laborde Marine; Cornelius Dupre, Dupre Inter-

ests; Mary Flores, Houston Energy

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Tom Moyers, Cameron; Richard & Teena Williams, Baker Hughes

Len & Adana Paton, Parks Paton Hoepfl & Brown; Veronica &

Daniel Schiller, Energy XX1

Jennifer Medcalf, Broadpoint; Rob Saltiel, Transocean

Richard & Jackie Higham, Acteon Group; Kenny Lang, Ridgewood

Energy

Kim Bates & Ken Leonard, Shell Exploration & Production

Peter Laborde, Laborde Marine; Bruce Ross, Dorado Energy

Partners; Brady Como, Delmar Systems

washington report

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Matt & Priscilla Pilon, Simmons & Company International; Randy

Stilley, Seahawk Drilling

Phil & Diana Stutes, Fugro Chance

Tom Young, Deep Gulf Energy; Steven Roll, J. Ray McDermott;

Ben Stein; Candace Schlief, ATP Oil & Gas

Dave Sellers, Edison Chouest Offshore; Nick Swyka, Simmons &

Company International

Tom & Aletha Moyers, Cameron; Ann Marie & Russ Lass, Hart

Energy Publishing

Marie Polk, Vallourec & Mannesmann USA; Kevin & Pamela

Lasseigne, Edison Chouest Offshore

10

The committee then received a report on the NOIA sponsored Teacher Workshop, which was held by the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project.

In addition to various energy-related games and projects throughout the day, the 50 Colorado teachers in attendance were exited to hear the presentations given by three volunteers from the Technology Policy Committee on the offshore energy industry and its growing importance.

NOIA’s efforts with NEED were greatly supported by the committee, which then discussed the possibility of future endeav-ors with NEED and the workshops they hold throughout the country. It was also mentioned that a discussion of next year’s lunch and learn topic should get under way. Finance CommitteeNOIA Treasurer, Len Paton, Managing Partner, Parks Paton Hoepfl & Brown chaired the meeting of the Finance Com-mittee.

The committee reviewed a detailed pre-sentation Paton had prepared outlining the association’s financial position to date with projections to year-end 2009. The presentation also included the proposed budget for 2010 which the committee ap-proved and sent forward to the Executive Committee and Board of Directors where it also received approval.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances the association’s financial position is projected to remain robust and investments will con-tinue to meet the Board mandated position

of having at least one year’s operating ex-pense in reserve.

Paton’s presentation was too extensive to chronicle here, however copies of the pre-sentation, all Financial Statements and the 2010 budget detail are available to all members and can be obtained by calling the NOIA office.

Membership CommitteeThe meeting of the Membership Com-mittee was held in conjunction with the meeting of the Board of Directors and was chaired by Committee Chair, David Law-rence, Executive Vice President, Explora-tion & Commercial, Shell Energy Resourc-es Company.

Member development results for the first three quarters of 2009 were reviewed with the following items worthy of note:•7 new members with new revenue of $84,920•7 voluntary dues increases for additional revenue of $72,800•4 dues decreases for a loss of $16,730•20 cancellations for an additional loss of $192,920•The net loss at September 30 was $51,930.

There was discussion about the fact that the economic downturn has impacted membership this year. Some companies withdrew from membership citing budget cutbacks, while a number of companies were dropped due to dues being in arrears for an extended period of time.

Lawrence expressed appreciation to all who have worked so diligently to expand the growth of this association. He pointed out that it is critical that we continue to



noia fall meeting summary

washington report

11

bring new members into NOIA in order to strengthen our voice and enhance our position as we work on behalf of the industry.

A reminder that all members of NOIA are, in essence, part of the Membership Commit-tee. If you know of anyone who should be encouraged to join us in our work on behalf of the industry, please contact them, or call NOIA Director of Member Development, Franki Stuntz, for any assistance you may need.

(Continued from )noia fall meeting summary

Randall Luthi, NOIA President Elect; Melody & Kim

Meyer, Chevron Energy Technology Company

Tom Fry has announced he will retire as the President of the National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA) in early 2010. The NOIA Board of Directors unanimously elected Randall Luthi as his successor October 9 during NOIA’s Fall Meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo-rado.

“It has been my great privilege to rep-resent the interests of the offshore ener-gy industry over the past decade,” said Fry, who has served as NOIA President since December, 2000. “I thank the membership and the staff for making my job at NOIA rewarding, enjoyable and memorable.”

“Tom has been a highly positive, dip-lomatic and effective advocate for the offshore energy industry, and has as-sembled an impressive and skilled staff,” said T. Jay Collins, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocean-eering International, Inc. and the cur-rent NOIA Chairman. “On behalf of the membership, I wish Tom all the best in his retirement and thank him whole-heartedly for his outstanding service to the membership in pursuit of public policies that support offshore energy se-curity for America.”

noia elects incoming president

Randall Luthi brings with him a back-ground in federal service with DOI, most recently as the Director of MMS. Prior to that he was Deputy Director of the Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Luthi served as an attorney in the Department’s Office of the Solicitor and in the Office of General Counsel of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Outside of DOI, Luthi was Wyoming Speaker of the House and a Wyoming State Representative for over a decade. He also worked as an environmental law consultant and as a legislative assistant to Senator Alan K. Simpson. Luthi is currently a partner in the law firm of Luthi & Voyles, LLC in Thayne, Wyo-ming.

12

The approaching ice and snow did not hin-der 50 local Colorado Springs educators from attending the October 8, 2009 NOIA Energy Awareness Month Workshop hosted in conjunction with the NOIA Fall Meeting. Working with education part-

ner, the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project, NOIA provided the teachers with an opportunity to learn about offshore technologies and the many careers available to students in today’s classrooms.

NOIA President Tom Fry welcomed the educators and shared the importance of offshore resources as a major portion of the nation’s energy picture. Educators then participated in Offshore Oil and Gas Bin-go – a quick game designed to introduce basic facts about oil and gas development offshore. Both Fry and Incoming NOIA President Randall Luthi participated in this activity with the educators – provid-ing additional information and personal knowledge about the topic.

NEED’s Trainer Vernon Kimball facilitat-ed the day-long workshop that was filled

with hands-on, interac-tive activities and several presentations delivered by NOIA members. Teach-ers participated in experi-ments and lessons about the forms of energy and energy transformations, explored the nation’s lead-ing energy sources and

noia & need hold energy awareness workshoplearned about the substantial contribution of the OCS to the nation’s energy mix.

NEED’s Fossil Fuels to Products unit (sponsored by Shell) allowed educators to explore the basics of oil and gas formation, exploration, and production both onshore and offshore and the NEED Exploring Wind activities allowed them to learn more about the application of wind technologies to the OCS and the wind projects currently in development offshore.

The teachers were also treated to three presentations to help them understand several aspects of the industry while learning about a variety of offshore ca-reers. Will Franklin of LimeRock Part-ners provided educators with background on financing offshore oil and gas projects and the many factors that must be con-sidered before a project is launched. Kim Bates of ExxonMobil shared the story of oil and gas exploration and production and the many careers present in the E&P pro-cess. Joe Wilson of Natco linked the day together with a presentation of how oil and gas products come to market and the many components needed to bring these products to homes and businesses.

“Educators in inland states like Colorado have little access to information and train-ing about the nation’s offshore resources, but that does not diminish their need to understand those resources,” said Mary Spruill, Executive Director of NEED. “NEED is honored to work with NOIA and its membership to help increase un-derstanding of energy and the role NOIA members play in the nation’s energy pic-ture.”

Colorado school teachers learn about energy from NOIA and

NEED.

A hands on experiment helped Colorado teachers learn about

energy October 8th.

washington report - noia

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