iSmithers is delighted to announce that Greene, Tweed & Co is the Gold sponsor and Hoerbiger Corporation of America, Inc. is the Bronze sponsor of this event.

High performance polymer based materials have been utilised extensively in oil and gas exploration and recovery for decades. Elastomers, thermosets and thermoplastics and other material families have served the industry well in solving demanding application problems, and evolutionary performance improvements have been made in the wide array of products used in this field.  Applications span a broad range of locales, from downhole to subsea to gathering, storage and processing of hydrocarbon media.

Today, oil and gas exploration and recovery has entered a period of dramatic change in that substantially different technologies and methods are utilised to recover hydrocarbon reserves from increasingly challenging environments. Headlines in the news persistently report that the days of easy oil are behind us. Offshore exploration and recovery is moving to greater depths, at higher pressures and temperatures than previously encountered and often in substantially more demanding corrosive environments. Land based operations are utilising a broader array of enhanced oil recovery fluids and media, as well as being forced to work in higher H₂S concentration deposits, each of which places further strain on the non-metallic components of the devices and tools used in the recovery of hydrocarbon deposits.  In some environments, such as tar sands, requirements for highly abrasion resistant materials with broad operating temperature windows in high pressure steam contact is presenting new challenges to materials providers.  Yet, all of these mentioned environments are the new reality of oil and gas exploration and recovery and the technological demands must be met by the materials providers.

From a regulatory perspective, demands are being placed on the industry to develop more rigorous and scientifically sound predictions of lifetime for critical service components in all of the demanding environments mentioned above and more.  High levels of confidence must exist in the devices that are utilised in hydrocarbon recovery and that confidence must be achieved by demonstrating solid engineering and science based product development.

The industry is faced with not just an evolutionary or incremental change in the demands on existing polymer based materials, but in fact is in the midst of a substantial or revolutionary change in material property requirements both in magnitude and application environment. Where elastomers may have served in the past, thermoplastics are likely to be required in future; where thermoplastics may not meet demanding conditions, application specific composites may be called for. The future of materials science and technology providers is a bright yet demanding one as the rate of demand for new materials grows and perhaps exceeds to pace at which new solutions can be developed.     

iSmithers' brings the first High Performance Thermoplastics and Composites for Oil & Gas Applications conference to Houston to highlight the ongoing research, development and qualification of materials to enable the industry to move forward into the highly demanding environments being encountered today and respond to new challenges that will exist in the future.  Tailored to the specific needs of the oil and gas industry, the conference will provide a forum for speakers to showcase, and delegates to learn about new materials and processing technologies that will improve current application performance and open the door to improve or replace existing material selections.

A limited number of sponsorship and marketing opportunities are available for this event. Please contact Helen Charlesworth, email hcharlesworth@ismithers.net or tel: +44 (0)1939 250383 for further details.

Exhibitors at the table-top exhibition include:

Greene Tweed & Co (Gold Sponsor)

Hoerbiger Corporation of America Inc (Bronze Sponsor)

RTP Company

Ticona Engineering Polymers

Victrex

Conference Prices

Companies sending one or two delegates:

$1100 per delegate

Companies sending three or more delegates:

Venue Information

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