The next MTS Houston Section May luncheon will be held on May 28, 2015 and will feature a presentation by George Pettigrew, Vice President and Head of Chissonga Development (Angola) for Maersk Oil. Mr. Pettigrew will discuss the current state of major capital projects and operations trends. As the price of oil hovers in the $40-$60 per barrel range and the global supply glut persists, many companies are hitting the “pause” button on the sanctioning of new major capital projects.
Billions of dollars’ worth of spending on major upstream and downstream projects have been placed on hold, including Shell’s $6.5 billion Al Karaana petrochemicals project in Qatar, Sasol’s $14 billion gas-to-liquids project in Louisiana and Total’s $11 billion Joslyn oil sands project in Alberta. Final investment decisions have also been postponed for the foreseeable future on Chevron’s $10 billion Rosebank field in the U.K. North Sea and Statoil’s $16 billion-$19 billion Johan Castberg field in the Barents Sea of Norway.
An executive from Saudi Aramco recently stated that the global oil and gas industry is poised to “potentially cancel about $1 trillion in capital funding” in 2015. This is having a significant impact on countries around the world that have been counting on revenues from higher oil prices to balance their budgets, as well as operators and service companies that are being forced to drastically reduce their costs. Nonetheless, many believe there is still significant potential for long-term value in proceeding with major capital projects.
About the Speaker
George Pettigrew joined Maersk Oil as Vice President and Head of Chissonga Field Development (Angola) in February 2015. George heads a Project Leadership Team of nine managers (including Subsurface, Facilities, Operations, Drilling & Completions, Legal, HSE, Integration, Project Services and HR). George began his career as a Project Engineer with Britoil in 1982. He became Project Manager and Deputy Business Unit Leader for BP in Aberdeen in 1996. From 2000-2004, he headed up New Assets in BP’s Norwegian Business Unit where he oversaw the discovery, appraisal drilling, concept selection and negotiation of gas export for Skarv Development and managed a recovery program for the failed installation of a jacket and water injection platform (including contractor settlement).
From 2004-2009, George served as General Manager of the BP/ENI Joint Venture in Egypt and delivered Phase One of Gas Growth in Egypt on schedule and below cost. He established a multi-discipline and national subsea organization with competency to deliver this and future subsea projects. George was Global Director of Project Management and Execution for BP in London from 2009-2012, and he most recently served as BP’s Vice President of Projects in the West Nile Delta. George holds a Master’s degree in Marine Technology from the University of Strathclyde.
UPCOMING MTS HOUSTON PRESENTATIONS AND EVENTS IN 2015
June 25 - LLOG Delta House Floating Production System, Rick Fowler, Vice President, LLOG Exploration.
July 23 - Golf Tournament September 24 - Kodiak - GOM Tieback, Danny Hough, Deep Gulf Energy
October 13-14 - Dynamic Positioning Conference
October 29 - MTS Houston Barbecue (Note revised date) December 3 - Anadarko Lucius Project, S. Michael Beattie, General Manager GOM Deepwater Facilities, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
