Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association's conference (APPEA2014)
On the 6-9th April, Alec Millett (Nautical and Hydrographic Advisor, NSID), attended the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association's conference APPEA2014 which was held in Perth, Western Australia. APPEA is the peak national body representing Australia's expanding oil and gas exploration and production industry with the annual conference being the signature event for the year. AMSA's attendance at this conference is important to primarily help reaffirm the navigational safety aspects of commercial shipping traffic with offshore activities, to promote the concept of a more rigorous approach to holistic marine spatial planning (MSP) and to gauge the direction and sentiment of the industry as a whole in the context of national and international seaborne trade.
Attending a full conference program of plenary and concurrent sessions were 3,750 delegates representing 1,000 companies from 37 countries. There were 230 exhibitors representing all aspects of the industry from the oil and gas majors, government regulators, hardware suppliers, service providers, security, Class, surveying and environmental agencies. Furthermore, there were 40 individual poster presentations which commanded a central position within the cavernous exhibition hall. AMSA had a prominent poster presentation on Marine Spatial Planning that was very well received by delegates and promoted much thought and discussion, especially on the volume of traffic off the north west of Western Australia and the potential for ship-to-infrastructure incidents. The latter is mitigated though the use of protective measures such as AMSA's charted north west shipping fairways.
