By LOUISE S. DURHAM
EXPLORER Correspondent

Getting With the Program

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Forum Overview

Meeting Overview

The morning APPEX session will feature:

A global perspectives session, led by Pete Stark, Pete Stark, IHS' vice president of industry relations.

An African session that will focus on deepwater trends, featuring Lyndon West, studies director with IHS Energy, and Antonio de Pinho, vice president of Devon Energy.

Asian E&P perspectives, which will address key issues such as markets for stranded gas, deepwater trends and opportunities to grow regional oil production. Ian Cross, vice president of IHS, will review the key issues and outlook for the region.

A Unocal official also is expected to participate in the session.

A session on Latin America trends and outlooks, featuring Michael Dyer, IHS' Latin America senior regional manager, and Kurt Neher, chief geologist for Occidental Oil and Gas Corp. This session will include a comparison of E&P results for the three leading deepwater plays -- West Africa, offshore Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico.

Chuck Davidson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Noble Energy, will be the luncheon speaker and is expected to discuss challenges and issues that Noble faced in its transition from being primarily a domestic company to an international player.

The entire afternoon session will focus on North American natural gas, and will include:

The first session will address the Gulf of Mexico and will focus on deepwater issues and outlook.

The speaker panel will include Jim Flanagan, deepwater Gulf GEPS manager for IHS Energy, and John Adamick, vice president of business development for TGS-NOPEC, who will discuss the U.S. Gulf of Mexico; and Guillermo Perez Cruz, vice president of Pemex, who will address the opportunities and plans for Mexico's Gulf of Mexico waters.

A second North American natural gas presentation, which will address key issues such as onshore U.S. gas supplies, the role of unconventional gas reservoirs, western Canada supply outlook and LNG perspectives.

Bob Lydecker, manager of North American gas business consulting for IHS Energy, will set the stage for the session. Executive keynote panelists will include Kevin McMichael, exploration vice president for El Paso, and AAPG president Steve Sonnenberg, with EnCana.

"By targeting companies extremely active in these areas as presenters, we are going to get some insights into what these companies are doing that the casual observer might never find out," said APPEX co-chair Deborah Sacrey.

Co-chair Paul Hoffman is hopeful the forum will give attendees an outlook on trends, opportunities and strategies that will allow them to better conduct their own business.

"We have two specific challenges in the exploration business," he said. "One is to source capital for exploration, which is I think, to put it mildly, a hard sell on Wall Street. The second is to identify quality investment opportunities in exploration. Prospects are the raw material for our business and there has been a general concern for a decade or more that the availability of quality prospects is diminishing.

"I read a survey recently of oil and gas independents that cited the lack of quality prospects as the number two impediment to success in the coming year," he continued. "APPEX represents one of the best opportunities, particularly since it is executed and managed by geoscientists, for companies large and small to help themselves meet those challenges.

"This conference addresses both challenges -- identifying new sources of capital as well as locating quality prospects."