Programme Day 1

3rd Annual Conference

Oil & Gas Communications:

North Africa & the Middle East

Grand Hyatt Hotel, Cairo, June 16th & 17th, 2008

DAY ONE

0830 Registration & Sponsored Networking Refreshments

0930 Introduction & Welcome from the Conference Chair

Martin Jarrold, Chief of International Programme Development, GVF

0940 Session 1 – Opening Presentation

Application & Technology Dynamics: From SCADA to Broadband Data Networking – An Overview

This overview will provide an introduction to the two-day programme, with an appraisal of the development of digital applications that are central to the mission-critical requirements of the oil & gas sector, together with analysis of the dynamics of the communications technologies available to support them.

1010 Session 2

Communications Infrastructures Alternatives in the US$100+ Barrel Environment: Investing in Future Mission Critical Delivery

This session will offer an analysis of today’s communications product and service environment within which the players in the solutions vendor community compete to satisfy the efficiency and data risk-management needs of the buyers of Digital Oilfield ICT solutions in the E & P environment. As harder to reach oil & gas reserves – increasingly in offshore and deepwater locations – become economically more viable in the context of rising energy demand and higher prices, what lessons from the global Digital Oilfield environment are being cost-effectively applied across the North Africa & Middle East global oil & gas patch?

1050 Sponsored Networking Refreshments

1120 Sponsor Showcase A

1140 Session 3

Enablers of the 21st Century ‘Digital Oilfield’

What is meant by the phrase “enabling the digital oilfield”? Is there universal agreement on a shared definition? This root-and-branch discussion will set out a full explanation of all that the phrase can encompass including definitions of requirements for systems resilience and data security.

1220 Sponsor Showcase B

1240 Session 4

Regulatory & Licensing Solutions: National & Regional Answers in an Oil & Gas Wireless World

In today’s oil & gas environment voice, data and many higher bandwidth applications must flow freely between remote sites and other points in company regional and global networks in order to facilitate important and timely decisions. Obstacles to effective cross-border communications can only compromise the cost-effectiveness of operational and corporate procedures. This session will examine the current state-of-play in the North African and Middle Eastern regulatory and licensing environment, and offer an analysis of the impact on the regional oil & gas sector of potential spectrum allocation conflicts between satellite and terrestrial broadband wireless.

1310 Sponsored Networking Lunch

1440 Session 5

Local & Global Connectivity Links: Fibre & WiMax Factors for Oil & Gas Business

This session will focus on leading-edge terrestrial wireless and fibre communications technology developments and their current and potential impact on the ICT strategies of the oil & gas sector. Understanding current trends in terrestrial wireless and fibre is an essential foundation for oil & gas ICT managers in the planning of future-use and purchasing decisions in the broadband, IP, applications and services marketplace. Which communications technologies are most likely to yield the greatest operational efficiencies? Which communications platforms are affected by geographically determined supply factors? Is there potential for spectrum conflict between terrestrial wireless and satellite solutions in different parts of the global oil & gas patch? What is behind the increasing levels of demand for fibre in the offshore production environment? Is there a coherent business model to support the deployment of a fibre-based infrastructure?

1520 Sponsor Showcase C

1540 Sponsored Networking Refreshments

1610 Session 6

Integrated Solutions from the First to the Last Mile

ICT solutions buyers in the oil & gas sector are interested in the applications-supporting cost-effectiveness of the solutions they need rather than in the detail of the technology platforms that contribute to the solution. They tend to be technology agnostic. Yet, the physical circumstances of oil & gas resource exploitation, and the industry requirement to link multiple sites – for example, inland and offshore, well-head and site office, or Collaborative Visualisation Environment and corporate HQ – necessitate that companies in the sector buy wide area networking services which utilise combinations of terrestrial and satellite platforms. Communications industry operators and service providers have to ensure that their offerings to the oil & gas sector continue to provide multi-platform, multiple technology, integrated, solutions to meet the complex and extensive voice, data, and video applications needs of this vertical environment. In this session we will investigate and explain how this is being achieved around the region now, and how it will be achieved in the future.

1650 Sponsor Showcase D

1710 Session 7 – First Day Closing Presentation

New Training Dynamics for Oil & Gas Communications

GVF has developed a range of training resources designed to offer the oil & gas E&P environment essential resources to facilitate professional development amongst satellite earth station installation engineers. In this session a GVF VSAT Installation & Maintenance Course Certified Trainer will explain the GVF installation training offering, and demonstrate how the oil & gas sector has already benefited from it.

Mazen Nassar, Managing Director, MenaNets & GVF Certified Installer Training Instructor

1740 Close of Conference Day One