METF3 Establishes Itself as a Key Event amongst the Middle East Geophysical Community
METF3, ION’s 3rd Middle East Technology Forum, took place in February 2007 at the Hilton Abu Dhabi Hotel. The forum brought together over 60 senior executives and technical experts from leading oil & gas companies, service contractors and academics in the Middle East. Presentations covered several developments in current trends and next-generation seismic technologies.
As with previous meetings, METF3 provided a frank, non-commercial mechanism for top executives and technical experts from the region, to debate the implications of the latest exploration, commercial and managerial issues reshaping the exploration discipline in the Middle East. The format included technical presentations and roundtable discussions.
The seminar comprised of a series of presentations delivered by leading players in the E&P industry:
- ADNOC
- ADCO
- Saudi Aramco
- SRAK
- WesternGeco
- The Petroleum Institute
One of the highlights of the seminar was the keynote speech by Mussabah Al-Kaabi, Geoscience Team Leader from ADNOC entitled “Seismic: Current Exploration and Reservoir Management Challenges in Abu Dhabi”.
Other topics included:
- Case Study: Full-wave survey in Egypt
- Case Study: BP Red Dessert FireFly survey
- Sparse 3D – using high-channel count crews to do low-fold acquisition
- Passive seismic and UAE passive seismic spectroscopy case studies
- Demultiple solutions in the Red Sea
- Case Study: Use of point-receiver recording
With any business conference or seminar, the venue is instrumental in making the right people want to attend and to ensure they enjoy their surroundings and the facilities during the event. The Hilton, Abu Dhabi provided just the tonic and widespread praise was given by all who attended. The hotel combines exceptional leisure options with professional meeting facilities as well as access to a private beach and stunning views of the city and the Arabian Gulf.
Donnie Enns from Oxy said:
“Abu Dhabi serves as a convenient meeting point with a strong geophysical community. The meeting benefited from diverse presentations with quality technical content and was enhanced by the opportunity to rub shoulders with colleagues actively involved in geophysical projects across the Middle East.”
With technically focused presentations, it is always difficult to predict how they are going to be received by an audience. Due to careful planning and well delivered presentations by all speakers, we received a lot of positive feedback from delegates.
Dr Atef Ebed from Horizon Energy commented:
“Every thing was great and well put together. The content and relevance of the presentations was very helpful. I was pleased to see that the event was not an ION marketing pitch but focused on technology aspects and real case studies. I enjoyed the high number of case studies presented at the forum. To me real examples from a field made my participation at the forum worthwhile and are crucial to the success of any future events”
Ben Lovell, ION’s MEA Director, added:
“We were delighted with the breadth and variety of delegates who attended. This year the forum included more than 15 technical presentations from leading oil and gas companies, contractors and ION, and ample time was given to openly debate and develop thoughts on current technological challenges as well as pathways for next-generation innovations”.
At the end of the forum, the much anticipated prize draw took place to win a high spec digital camera. All those who completed and returned a questionnaire about the forum were eligible. Congratulations to Pieter Van Maastrigt of SRAK who was the lucky winner!
