Norwegian Petroleum Directorate announces wait lists for Force conference

Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013

There are long wait lists for the Force conference "Norway- East Greenland conjugate margins", which will be held at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s offices on 30 and 31 January.

Force is a collaborative forum between the Norwegian authorities and the oil companies on the Norwegian shelf. The objective of Force is to share knowledge on improved oil and gas recovery (IOGR) and improved exploration (IE). On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the conference on regional structural geology «Norway – East Greenland conjugate margins» will be held at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s offices. The conference is fully-booked and this is the first time in connection with Force that wait lists have been established for participants who did not get in.

“The interest has been overwhelming. We have filled the premises which accommodate 150 people, and there are another 20 on wait lists,” says Sidsel Kruse Lindsø. She is an exploration geologist in Noreco, deputy chairman of the structural geology group in Force, and heads the programme committee for the conference.

This year’s conference focuses on the regional structural geology which covers the Norwegian margin from the Vøring basin and north to Svalbard. The Norwegian margin is seen in context with the geological development on the Greenlandic margin.

“Companies do not always have the resources for, or prioritise, regional studies. We have therefore tried to cover the big picture and highlight the latest research results, to give conference participants a professional boost.”

The members of the programme committee have proposed and discussed their way to the topics of the conference, under considerable influence from the geologists’ varying backgrounds. The goal has been to create broad-based involvement.

The day starts with an inspiring presentation on overall plate tectonic movements by Trond Torsvik (University of Oslo). Harald Brekke (Norwegian Petroleum Directorate) is the keynote speaker.

The work in Force is based on voluntary efforts by the authorities and the companies. The cooperation in the programme committee has been very good – both between companies and authorities and between individuals, according to Lindsø.

Lindsø is originally Danish and previously worked in Southeast Asia, and with this background she goes on to say that she views the cooperation between the Norwegian authorities and the oil companies as quite unique.

“That is actually one of the reasons I chose to work in Norway. The authorities here are strong and want to promote cooperation and knowledge sharing. When you share knowledge, others can take this with them and build upon it. Everyone benefits,” she says.

“We are planning more network events to further strengthen the cooperation in the structural geology group within Force,” says Ine Gjeldvik, the NPD’s representative in the programme committee.

Source: Norwegian Petroleum Directorate

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