NEW ORLEANS – The technologies and design challenges involved in extracting and handling shale gas and tight oil (also known as shale oil or light tight oil) will be a highlight of American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ (AIChE’s) 2014 Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety. The meeting, consisting of 150 sessions across eight topical conferences and special program tracks, will be held at the Hilton New Orleans – Riverside from March 30 to April 3. More than 2,400 engineers from 50 countries are expected to participate.
The Shale Gas and Tight Oil Topical Conference will include scores of presentations on topics ranging from the techniques behind hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking,” to water treatment and conservation initiatives. To kick-off the shale conference, on Tuesday, April 1, a panel of industry experts will discuss the process safety considerations and challenges involved in the safe extraction and processing of shale resources.
The past decade has seen the rapid development and growth of the light tight oil and shale gas industries, particularly in North America. According to conference organizers, the expansion of shale exploration and processing in the United States has increased domestic crude oil supplies by over one million barrels per day in each of the past two years. These additional petroleum reserves present new economic opportunities, but they also present engineering challenges at their source, as well as in their safe transportation and processing into fuels and other petrochemical products once the reserves are extracted from the shale. These and related topics will be addressed by the panelists, include Brian Kelly, a process safety consultant; Lawrence Kremer, senior technology advisor at Baker Hughes; Robert Loughney, senior consultant at Blue Marble Risk Solutions; and Kai Midboe, a member of the Environmental Law Department at McGlinchey Stafford, a New Orleans-based law firm. Joseph Powell, Chief Scientist at Shell, will moderate the panel.
Additional sessions will offer more details about the techniques and technology of the shale revolution, and will be held throughout the week of the Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety. These sessions are incorporated into topical conferences devoted to sustainable engineering, fuels and petrochemicals, chemical plant safety, and emerging technologies in clean energy, among other program tracks.
For more information about the conference or related workshops and meetings, please go to: http://www.aiche.org/spring.
Editor’s Note:
Journalists interested in covering the conference should contact Danielle Gross at dgross@thebravogroup.com
AIChE is a professional society of more than 45,000 chemical engineers in 100 countries. Its members work in corporations, universities and government using their knowledge of chemical processes to develop safe and useful products for the benefit of society. Through its varied programs, AIChE continues to be a focal point for information exchange on the frontiers of chemical engineering research in such areas as energy, sustainability, biological and environmental engineering, nanotechnology and chemical plant safety and security. More information about AIChE is available at www.aiche.org.