AIPN Conference to Address Current Events and Future Trends in the World’s Hydrocarbon Hotspots

AIPN Conference to Address Current Events and Future Trends in the World’s Hydrocarbon Hotspots
April 21-23, 2010 Galveston, Texas

Houston (March 5, 2010) – Energy industry leaders and experts will highlight important issues related to the legal framework and potential of global hydrocarbon regions at the AIPN Spring Conference April 21-23, 2010, in Galveston, Texas. Key speakers include Coalter Lathrop, President, Sovereign Geographic Inc.; Nelson Narciso, Director, Brazil National Petroleum Agency (ANP); Sergio Guaso, VP, New E&P Contracts Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex); Martin Schuepbach, President, Schuepbach Energy among others. Conference sessions will focus on new regulations and legislation that promote or inhibit new investment, and recent discoveries in regions such as the Arctic, Iraq, pre-salt in Brazil, Mexico deep water, Europe and Indonesia.

“Previously inaccessible maritime transportation corridors off the northern coast of North America, marine fish stocks, and, not least, hydrocarbon resources may become commercially viable if the melting trend continues as predicted,” said speaker Lathrop. “Understanding the international and national legal regimes that will govern access to and use of these resources is an essential element in understanding the future of hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in this burgeoning offshore area.”

The conference will also dedicate full sessions covering international “frontiers” such as European unconventional gas, and the reserves potential and technical and economic challenges of the pre-salt region in Brazil.

“The pre-salt oil province deep offshore Brazil is certainly one the most important discoveries of the last 30 years in the global oil industry,” said speaker Renato Bertani, President and CEO, Thompson and Knight Global Energy Services. The Brazilian congress is currently discussing new legislation for the awarding of the acreage still open, “which may contain resources in excess of 100 billion barrels.”

Other expert panelists will discuss additional frontiers such as: issues and challenges in West Africa focusing on Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Angola; recent elections, possible new hydrocarbons law and security in Iraq; and issues related to the US joining the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.