Flying the IOGP flag
IOGP representatives played an important role at the SPE Conference. Executive Director Gordon Ballard led the way as moderator of the Executive Plenary Session on Continuing HSSE-SR excellence for a sustainable future – “a subject that’s integral to IOGP’s mission,” he said.
Focusing on the ‘sustainable’ and ‘future’ aspects of the discussion, Gordon stressed that ‘If we’re to sustain the future of our industry, we have to show the world – and by that I mean regulators and lawmakers as well as the people they serve – that what we do is safe, responsible and in their best interests.”
While that’s obvious to those within the industry, he said, that point has to be made clear “particularly in those parts of the world where the legitimate issue of climate change has become an apocalyptic belief system that demonizes our industry.”
He went on to urge the audience to consider how they could use the insights gained from the discussion to further our industry’s cause. “I’d like to enlist every one of you as an informal industry ambassador ready to fight our corner as emotionally and effectively as you can,” he said. “Because it’s only when we present our position with passion that we’ll make any impact on the misconceptions about oil and gas that have become articles of faith.”
Other IOGP presenters at the Conference were Safety and Security Director Chris Hawkes, Global Engagement Manager Olaf Martins and Occupational & Process Safety Manager Mariana Carvalho.
The Association also had a stand at the HSSE-SR exhibition. This attracted a wide cross section of attendees and enabled hands-on promotion of some of IOGP’s newest technical reports.
“Having the stand gave us a valuable opportunity to meet many people from IOGP member companies and to interest others in the work of the Association,” says Business Operations Co-ordinator Sally Abou-El-Seoud, who was part of the team that welcomed visitors to the IOGP outpost
