Great Scot! Inspiring the Next Generation at Offshore Europe

Geoforce spent last week in the “Granite City” of Aberdeen, Scotland, interacting with over 1,500 oilfield companies at the largest upstream oil and gas conference outside North America, SPE Offshore Europe 2015. Aberdeen is known as the Energy Capital of Europe, and offshore drilling started here in the 1970’s. So as we shivered while staring at the foggy and frigid North Sea, we couldn’t help but be inspired pondering all the oil-related history that had occurred here.

The conference theme was ‘Inspiring the Next Generation’. Attendees were asked to find ways to address the technical and people challenges that face the oil patch today. Sessions focused on topics like meeting increasing demand while balancing concerns over climate change, supply security and consumer affordability. Other breakouts discussed how to inspire younger generations to join the industry.

During a keynote session, BP Chief Operating Officer Bernard Looney reminded attendees that oil and gas is still a growth industry, with, for instance, 1.6 billion more people needing energy by 2035. In another dose of optimism, he commented, “We’ve come through periods of low oil prices before, each with its own unique set of circumstances. The challenges have always been the same and our industry has always found a way. I believe we can do it. It is anything but mission impossible.”

As the world’s leading provider of GPS-based global traceability solutions for oilfield equipment, we agree with Mr. Looney and are proud to be doing our part to meet the technical and operational challenges discussed at Offshore Europe. Specifically, to make oilfield operations less chaotic, we’ve built the world’s largest network of connected oilfield equipment. Visitors to our stand, many of whom are tasked with solving operational, logistical, and compliance challenges on a daily basis, experienced the power of our connected network first hand and were presented solutions like our intrinsically safe, oilfield ruggedized GPS tracking devices, and our unique Track and Trace software applications.

Led by our North Sea Business Manager, Chris Gorman, Geoforce has been in the region since 2014. The North Sea has both a great history and a great future ahead of it. Motivated by what we saw at Offshore Europe, Geoforce looks forward to helping shape that future (provided we can stay warm enough while doing so!)