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Washington reportVolume Xl Number 2 DeCember, 2012

NOIA’s mission is to secure reliable access and a fair regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation’s valuable offshore energy resources in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

The National Ocean Industries Associa-tion held it’s 2012 Fall Meeting October 18-20 at one of our members’ favorite loca-tions, The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ari-zona with 162 members and 71 spouses in attendance.

The meeting this year started bright and early Thursday morning with committee and task force sessions before the “Kick Off Luncheon” with NOIA favorite, Dr. Fouad Ajami. NOIA heard from many well versed speakers such as former RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Judge Andrew Napolitano, NYT bestselling author Thomas Barnett, and Fox News Analyst Andrea Tantaros.

Thursday night NOIA members got a rous-ing speech from the sole remaining found-ing member of NOIA, John P. Laborde. Mr. Laborde is a legend in the offshore indus-try, and he spoke with vigor about how far NOIA has come in the past 40 years. Those in attendance Thursday evening also saw the unveiling of two NOIA 40th anniver-sary videos highlighting both where the offshore industry stands today and from where we came.

NOIA members saw presentations, pan-els, and speakers from across the offshore industry. From updates on floating wind projects and the Center for Offshore Safe-ty to discussions on workforce issues, our members gained valuable knowledge on the issues of the day for the offshore indus-try.

Dockwise’s presentation on the huge de-velopments they are making with heavy transport vessels that could literally transport the Statue of Liberty, alongside an update on the Dallian Developer by Technip showed what many in the room already knew, that the offshore industry is continually innovating. All of the pre-sentations and videos are accessible in the members section of the NOIA website at noia.org.

Following is a synopsis of the meeting.

General SpeakerS

Fouad ajamiNOIA members welcomed back Fouad Ajami, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Insti-tution. Dr. Ajami is a popular and frequent presenter at NOIA conferences who once again shared his trenchant analysis of the current state of the Middle East and its implications for the rest of the world.

Dr. Ajami agreed with President Obama’s assertion that the death of Osama Bin Laden is a good thing, but he cautioned that this does not, in fact, mean that “Bin-Ladenism” is dead. The United States still faces substantial threats from al-Qaeda and radicalism throughout the Middle East.

This is compounded, according to Ajami, by a failed foreign policy based on spin and perception. Ajami dismissed - as “naive,”

Special edition2012 noia Fall meetinG review

Fouad Ajami

Judge Andrew Napolitano

(Continued on next page)

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noia Fall meetinG reviewthe President’s attempts to engage Syria and Iran with an “open fist” while also making progress on Palestine and improv-ing the relationship with Pakistan. Ajami asserted that Obama believed this could be accomplished by “curing” the Arabs of their hatred towards Americans and their values. Yet, Obama is seen as having dis-paraged his own people in his outreach to the Muslim world, something that actu-ally caused a loss of respect rather than an opened dialogue.

The Obama foreign policy in the Middle East fails further, according to Ajami, by leaving the mission in Afghanistan unac-complished. Ajami referred to this as ‘Da-vid Axelrod Foreign Policy,’ one driven by domestic politics rather than foreign re-alities. The dilemma the US faces in the Middle East according to Ajami, is best surmised in an Arabic proverb that states, “I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers.”

Regardless of how hard the US tries, we are still strangers to the traditional Mus-lim world and must look for common allies through the burgeoning potential the Arab Spring has provided. Ajami cites the Ira-nian “Green Revolution” and the current crisis in Syria as perfect examples of failed US foreign policy. If Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama continue this “running out the clock” for-eign policy in the Middle East, the US will not gain any allies in an area of the world where we are desperate to do so, according to Dr. Ajami.

john p. laborde The distinguished Mr. John P. Laborde, Chairman of Laborde Marine Lifts, Re-tired Chairman Emeritus of Tidewater, and one of NOIA’s 33 founding members, entertained, encouraged and shared his wisdom with a captivated audience during his speech at the Welcome Reception and Dinner celebrating NOIA’s 40th anniver-sary Thursday, October 18, 2012.

With NOIA celebrating its 40th anniver-sary, Mr. Laborde was the obvious speaker of choice to recollect the history of NOIA. He eloquently expounded upon it being the brainchild of Thomas Barrow, and how his vision and foresight conceived the associa-tion. Laborde went on to further explain how after a period of time, our initial name evolved from The Oil & Gas Association to The National Ocean Industries Associa-tion, incorporating the mission and goals of our ambitious association into this more inclusive identity.

Mr. Laborde recognized all past presidents of NOIA by name and acknowledged Fran-ki Stuntz and Ann Chapman, two long-time and valued employees of NOIA.

Mr. Laborde challenged the room to con-tinue expanding while always leading with strength and excellence. The goal of 500 NOIA members Mr. Laborde set for the room was visionary, especially for a man who saw NOIA grow to where it is today.

He noted that, “Even though our industry is not the ‘sweetheart’ of the world, we are


NOIA President Randall Luthi,

Fouad Ajami,

NOIA Vice Chairman Dick Alario, Key

Energy Services

John P. Laborde

Michael Steele, John P. Laborde

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noia Fall meetinG reviewthe essential engine that drives the econo-my of the world.”

Mr. Laborde’s final charge to NOIA mem-bers was to, “Continue your ‘swagger’ be-cause you’ve earned it, but choose your au-dience carefully.”

Mr. Laborde’s storied life, stunning career and tremendous achievements has left a legacy for us all to admire, respect, and strive to achieve.

judGe andrew napolitanoAfter hearing from John Laborde, NOIA members were entertained by a rousing presentation on liberty from Judge An-drew Napolitano. Judge Napolitano is currently the senior judicial analyst for Fox News Channel and previously served as a Superior Court Judge in the State of New Jersey.

Judge Napolitano related a number of entertaining anecdotes for the audience about those who had appeared before him during his time serving on the bench in New Jersey. Napolitano looked back at the 2000 election with an eye toward the prob-lems facing the country in wake of a tight election that had yet to yield a candidate.

He offered up numerous legal strategies on air at Fox News in 2000 that proved to be prescient as the Bush v. Gore legal matter unfolded in the Florida Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court ruled as Napoli-tano predicted in 2000 ultimately leading to the election of former President George W. Bush.

Speaking in detail about the Constitution and its creation, at the heart of Napoli-tano’s speech, was how the people should hold the elected officials of both parties ac-countable for the erosion of civil liberties.

The growth of government power evad-ing the will and liberty of the people was Napolitano’s primary fear for our country moving forward. Napolitano called on the people of the United States to be proac-tive in holding their leaders accountable and demanding limited government be-fore they are nominated, not after they’re elected.

michael SteeleGovernment AffAirs Committee

The Government Affairs Committee host-ed a pre-election, political outlook report from Michael Steele. Mr. Steele presently serves as a MSNBC Political Analyst and has a deep reservoir of experience in poli-tics and policy.

Steele formerly served as the chairman of the Republican National Committee dur-ing a time in which the party, recovering from significant losses in the prior election cycle, rebounded to retake the House ma-jority in 2010.

Rising to notoriety, he was elected as the first African American elected to state-wide office in Maryland as Lt. Governor, Steele has served in a number of roles as an election reform expert, most notably on the National Federal Election Reform Commission.

Michael Steele


Judge Andrew Napolitano

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noia Fall meetinG reviewMr. Steele entertained the audience with his professional opinion of what the up-coming election cycle would bring while also raising eyebrows with some unexpect-ed analyses of the presidential race. Steele took a look at both of the presidential can-didates’ tactics and visions for the country.

He then began to relate the numbers and sentiment on a state by state basis with re-gard to down ballot races. His particular focus on the Senate races and their rela-tionship to who might win the state was particularly interesting, given that the fo-cus of much of the nation was on national presidential polling numbers. Steele pre-dicted problems for Republicans in many of the battleground states needed to win due in large part to a weak GOP infra-structure and a lack of physical “boots on the ground” needed to get out the vote.

Steele predicted that the one figure that was being ignored by those advocating a Mitt Romney presidency was “likeability.” Even though the approval rating of Presi-dent Obama was teetering at or below 50%, the nation still held a very favorable opinion of him as an individual. By Con-trast, Mitt Romney struggled much of the race to tie Obama in approval of his abil-ity to handle certain issues, and despite his surge past Obama in some categories (such as handling the economy) Romney was still not likeable.

Steele predicted that Obama would win re-election because it is always harder to fire the guy you like than hire someone you sort of like, even if they may be better fit for the job.

thomaS p.m. barnett The Friday breakfast session featured global affairs expert and best-selling au-thor Dr. Thomas P.M. Barnett, who pro-vided an energetic, engaging and wide-ranging presentation which was extremely well-received by the NOIA membership.

Barnett, a strategic planner who has worked in national security affairs since the end of the Cold War, discussed issues related to global conflict and military transformation, as well as international security and economic globalization.

His talk began with the Middle East and the rapid evolution taking place in the re-gion as globalization increasingly reaches their borders, escalating tensions and cre-ating political instability.

The region’s future, Barnett contends, will largely be shaped by historic rivalries of Persians and Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites, Turks and Iranians, and finally Egyptians and Iranians. He argues that American foreign policy should strive to create an “Axis of Good” among Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq that would create a new center of bal-ance in the region and in turn increased stability.

Turning to Asia, Barnett theorizes that China is emulating the American “hybrid” economic model striking the appropriate balance between smaller, entrepreneurial businesses and large, corporate enterpris-es. However, China’s future is constricted by demographic challenges which Barnett labels their “4-2-1” problem: four grand-parents, two parents, but only one child.

Thomas P.M. Barnett &

NOIA Chairman Bill Chiles

Thomas P.M. Barnett

Don Jacobson, Noble Corporation

Sandra Mourton,

Offshore Energy Center


Washington report

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noia Fall meetinG reviewChinese weaknesses include water scar-city, oil dependence, and their reluctance to fully embrace democracy. On this final point, Barnett contends that China will realize they cannot reach true prosperity short of this embrace, and will evolve into a “Chinese Democracy” of sorts by 2030.

As globalization comes to Africa, the con-tinent’s nations must be “re-mapped” from their current borders which are artificially symmetric because “someone else drew them.” Barnett forecasts a redrawing of borders throughout Africa with “squig-gly lines,” which more accurately reflect the wide political and religious variance across regions.

Concluding with his thoughts on the fu-ture of American prosperity amidst such global factors, Barnett pointed to a few basic, life-sustaining facts: the western hemisphere holds only 14% of the world’s population but controls 41% of the fresh water, and produces 70% of the world’s grain.

Coupled with demographic data showing the United States’ median age remaining among the world’s youngest populations for generations to come, Barnett’s long-term American forecast was positive and optimistic.

andrea tantaroS Andrea Tantaros closed out the final morning of NOIA’s Fall Meeting with a rousing speech on the changing climate of the election.

Tantaros, a Fox News Analyst, gave in-sight into what changed after the first de-

bate between Presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama. “Obama tells you that you didn’t build that and he’s try-ing to tell this room you didn’t drill that!” Tantaros declared. Obama’s lack of vision was finally becoming apparent to the elec-torate Tantaros iterated.

Andrea’s previous campaign and political crisis communications experiences led her to believe that Obama was failing to com-municate why he deserves reelection in contrast to Romney’s clear vision for the country.

Andrea claimed that Romney was strong with the youth vote, seniors, women, and those that rate foreign policy as their pri-mary concern. The youth vote wouldn’t be swayed by celebrity endorsements, seniors couldn’t be scared by attacks on Medicare, and women were no longer one issue vot-ers were just some of the issues plaguing Obama’s reelection efforts.

The thorn in Obama’s side, according to Tantaros, would be the latest news com-ing out on the Benghazi attacks and the lack of accountability within the Obama Administration.

Regardless of everything not going in Obama’s favor for reelection Andrea closed with, “Popularity is nothing without cred-ibility.” She claimed that for Obama, “It’s not a teleprompter, it’s a fun house mir-ror!”


Copies of all presentations mentioned in this report

are available on the noiA website at www.noia.org

Andrea Tantaros

Cathy Cobb, Andrea Tantaros,

Galen Cobb, Halliburton

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The people are ready for a leader and An-drea said that the people were ready to elect that leader on November 7, 2012 with a vote for Mitt Romney. She closed with her prediction that Mitt Romney would be the next President of the United States of America.

Special SeSSionS

G&G taSk Force A sub-group of the NOIA membership met on the opening day of the Fall Meeting to look at the current state of issues in Geo-logical and Geophysical (G&G) permitting activities.

Joining the conversation by telephone were representatives of IAGC, who offered an overview of the current state of permitting for G&G activity. Since no exploration and production offshore can take place without first adequately performing G&G analysis to locate potential deposits, maintaining a robust pipeline of G&G permitting and ac-tivity is essential to continually bringing new production online.

The participants in the task force meeting learned that the years before the Macondo blowout were considered the “high-water mark” in terms of number of permits is-sued, but that permitting fell 90% in 2010. The rate of permits is beginning to re-bound, and 25 permits had been approved by October 2012. A number of those had been submitted in 2011, however, and the average time for permit approvals is roughly 4 to 5 months.

The major challenges industry will face with respect to G&G permitting comes from new requirements for an “informal consultation” between the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Na-tional Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). While NMFS cannot disapprove a permit application, they can certainly introduce uncertainty into the process if they deem that permit application to be incompatible with their own biological opinion.

NOIA G&G Task Force members and our counterparts at IAGC will continue to ad-vocate for clarifying and simplifying the permitting process so that permits will continue to be predictable and timely in their issuance.

Finally, the Task Force discussed the need for a coordinated outreach strategy for the coastal Atlantic States. NOIA has been working on such an outreach strategy for several years, targeting Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina specifically, and mem-bers were brought up to speed on the cur-rent state of this work.

oFFShore renewableS taSk Forcehywind maine pilot parkThe Offshore Renewables Task Force (ORTF) convened its third meeting since its creation in 2011. Richard Williams of Fugro Chance, was named as the Chair of the committee, and introduced the guest speaker, Meagan Keiser, Legal Counsel for Statoil North America, Inc.

noia Fall meetinG review


noiA 2013

Annual meetinG

April 17-19

the ritz-Carlton

Washington, DC

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Meagan briefed the task force and other at-tendees on the Hywind Maine Pilot Park, which is targeted to be the first demonstra-tion project for floating offshore deepwater wind turbines in the United States upon completion in 2016.

Statoil has been gradually growing its re-newable energy and low-carbon technolo-gies. The company developed the theory and principle behind the deepwater float-ing wind turbine in 2001, tested a model in 2005, and deployed Hywind, the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, off of Norway, in 2009.

While the Norway Hywind demonstra-tion project has generated more than 15 MWh of wind energy since startup, its real purpose has been to test how wind and waves affect the floating structure, which consists of a ballast-filled steel cylinder that extends 100 meters beneath the sea’s surface and is attached to the seabed by a three-point mooring spread. The project has exceeded expectations.

The Hywind turbine is a slender cylinder substructure, which is optimized for ef-ficient manufacturing. It has a standard-ized mooring system which can be pre-installed even in rough weather, and a standard offshore turbine, which requires minimum adaptations and has a standard interface. Offshore work is minimized, as assembly and pre-commissioning of the Hywind turbine can be performed onshore, and installation requires no heavy lift op-erations.

Hywind Maine Pilot Park will consist of four 3MW turbines. Located about 12

nautical miles off the coast of Maine, the park will cover 2-4 square miles in about 475 feet of water. Power generated by the park will be exported by submerged cable to shore. The pilot park will be a stepping stone for Maine in its goal of achieving at least 300 MW of renewable energy genera-tion facilities offshore by 2020.

As Statoil seeks markets to commercialize at scale, it looks to the Hywind Maine Pi-lot Park project to demonstrate scalability of costs, examine turbine interaction in a park setting, create a domestic industry to strengthen the ability of the U.S. and Maine supply chains to deliver according to industry expectations, familiarize the public with offshore wind turbines, and prove environmental feasibility.

You may view the full presentation on the Hywind Maine Pilot Project from the NOIA website home page, noia.org. The ORTF will convene a working meeting in May during the Offshore Technology Con-ference in Houston.

panel: “workForce iSSueS: the challenGe oF GettinG back to work”paul danoS & bruce bullock

Bruce Bullock, Director of the Maguire Energy Institute, SMU Cox School of Business and Paul Danos, Executive Vice President of Danos led a discussion of employment issues related to the offshore oil and gas industry.

Director Bullock focused in on the upcom-



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noia Fall meetinG reviewing workforce and gave a description of the kind of employees that are entering the workforce from the nation’s colleges and universities. This generation of stu-dents, often referred to as millenials, are 80 million strong, exceptionally bright, technologically savvy and social media in-fluenced. Most get their news from social media outlets and while their face to face connections may not be what we are used to, their electronic social media based connections are widespread and deep.

The skill sets and goals of millenials are a good fit for the energy industry. They appreciate internships, work experience and immediate feedback. Due to an in-creasing student loan debt, most are look-ing for jobs with good earning potential. Employers desiring to take advantage of the workforce must be social media savvy and willing to invest time and energy in securing their employment.

Paul Danos talked about the practical side of service company hiring. As the activity in the Gulf of Mexico heats up, there is more and more competition for fewer skilled employees. In addition, GOM related industries are also dealing with an aging workforce.

College graduates may be a plus, but many of the jobs in the industry can be filled by those without a college diploma who have specialized technical training and many companies are investing in technical schools to produce those em-ployees. Industry should be interested in seeing that the feedstock for employment is being encouraged.

Experienced employees are at a premium in this economy. Service companies and smaller producers are going to have to adapt to the changing employment mar-ket or they are going to lose employees to larger companies. Thus, planning for a continual replacement strategy will assist in a consistent workforce. Recruitment through online resources and reaching outside the Gulf of Mexico are also the new normal.

committee meetinGS

teChnoloGy PoliCy CommitteeGreG roland & jim o’Sullivan The Technology Policy Committee offers NOIA members a chance to better under-stand cutting-edge technologies that are impacting the ability to produce energy resources further from shore or deeper un-derground.

This particular session focused on presen-tations of two different technologies: Float-ing Production Storage and Off-loading systems (FPSO) and an oil spill response vessel called the Dalian Developer.

First, Greg Roland of Petrobras America described the Cascade and Chinook proj-ect that allows Petrobras to deploy the first Gulf of Mexico FPSO system to produce fields in depths at an amazing 8,200 feet of water.

Ultimately, as many as 13 separate wells might tie back to the FPSO, which could then off-load the produced oil to shore via tanker or pipeline. Roland also enumer-


Bruce Bullock

Paul Danos

Greg Roland, Jim O’Sullivan &

Richard Williams, Fugro Chance Inc.

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noia Fall meetinG reviewated the many innovations that come from deploying such a complicated system, in-cluding the first pull-in of umbilicals using subsea winch operated by ROVs, the deep-est pipe-in-pipe flowlines and the deepest gas export pipeline (8,200 ft.).

Next, Jim O’Sullivan, Vice President of Technip USA, profiled the Dalian Devel-oper. One of the principal lessons learned in the response to the Macondo blowout of 2010 is that a proliferation of vessels on the site confuses command-and-control and raises the threat of additional incidents.

The Dalian Developer was thus designed to serve as one vessel to serve many func-tions on site in a major spill response. O’Sullivan pointed out that Dalian Devel-oper is the only mobile drilling unit in the world large enough to capture, process and store oil spills in excess of Macondo’s spill rate. With a 12 knot transit speed, it also provides a rapid response rate to emergen-cies as they evolve around the planet.

PubliC AffAirs AnD eDuCAtion Committee (PAeC): charlie williamS, coSThe Public Affairs and Education Com-mittee (PAEC) focused on the industry safety culture by hosting a session featur-ing guest speaker, Charlie Williams, Ex-ecutive Director of the Center for Offshore Safety (COS). Charlie delivered an update on the Center, which began operations ear-lier this year, with a mission to promote the highest level of safety for offshore drilling, completions, and operations through lead-ership and effective management systems addressing communication, teamwork and

independent third-party auditing and cer-tification.

The focus of the Center’s work is based on API’s Recommended Practice (RP) 75, covering safety and environmental man-agement systems (SEMS) -- the key mech-anism to reduce the likelihood of major in-cidents. The COS offers accreditation and certification for SEMS audits, and has de-veloped a SEMS toolkit which includes an audit protocol checklist, compliance readi-ness worksheet, operator-contractor letter templates, and audit guidance documents.

The Center conducts industry outreach through various workshops and meetings as well as an annual safety forum. The Center also works to improve industry learning capability, verification of contrac-tor skills & knowledge, and safety perfor-mance indicators.

In fact, the COS has identified 12 draft safety performance indicator topics that are under development – major incidents, critical equipment failures, process de-viation, well kicks, safe systems of work, maintenance, skills and knowledge, emer-gency response, management of change, non-compliance, action closure, and lead-ership site engagements.

Looking to the future, Charlie said that the Center plans to become a one-stop cen-tral source for information and knowledge, audit accreditation, program certification and tools and technical assistance opera-tions.


Greg Roland

Charlie Williams

Michael Whatley, Consumer Energy

Alliance,Charlie Williams,

Nolan Roberts, Cameron

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The COS will also continually promote an industry culture of incident-free opera-tions, focusing on process safety in addi-tion to personal safety, with an emphasis on behavior, and a dual goal of no harm to people and no harm to environment. The center will elevate the industry’s qual-ity and safety standards by creating and sharing best practices, and continuous im-provement.

General SeSSionrobb erickSonDockwise’s Robb Erickson gave a presen-tation on the next generation heavy trans-port vessel, the Vanguard and a service overview covering transport and logistics.

Dockwise has established itself as one of the premiere heavy transportation leaders in the world with an impeccable track re-cord of over 2,500 transports in 30 years. Today Dockwise has the ability for a single unit to carry up to 78,000 metric tons.

The significant cost and time reduction by use of the “float-over” method gives Dock-wise’s fleet the capability to install top-sides up to 40,000 metric tons. Robb Erick-son pointed to their in-house engineering, procurement and risk management as the backbone that has led to their high safety record and timely installation of platforms.

Erickson introduced the new Dockwise Vanguard. At over three football fields long, with the ability to drop the deck 52 feet below water alongside the ability to carry 110,000 metric tons, the Vanguard gives limitless opportunity for what type of platforms and equipment can be shipped in the future. With the ability to travel at

14 knots and its next generation fuel ef-ficient capabilities the Vanguard can re-duce ocean transit times by 70%.

Vanguard can accommodate a large num-ber of riders on the moveable cargo unit during ocean transit. This unique capa-bility avoids intermediate wet tow and extensive marine spread requirements. Vanguard is also capable of in-field dry docking of turret moored FPSOs, so pro-duction does not necessarily have to be completely shut down.

executive committee & board oF directorSNOIA Chairman, Bill Chiles, President & CEO, Bristow Group Inc., chaired the meetings of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors.

Treasurer Bret West, Executive Vice President & Division Head, Wells Fargo Energy, presented a full report of the as-sociation’s financial position to September 30, 2012, with observations that the Asso-ciation’s financial position remains strong.

Areas reviewed were:

• YTD Revenue: Actual vs. Budget• YTD Actual Expenses vs.

YTD 2012 Budget• NOIA Liquidity Summary• PAC and Joint Economic Study

(contributions and fund balances)• 2012 Projections vs. 2012 Budget• Proposed 2013 Budget• Projected 12/31/2012, Liquidity,

Analysis and Observations


Robb Erickson

Dockwise Black Marlin

NOIA Board Meeting


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The 2013 proposed budget was approved by the Executive Committee and sent forward to the Board of Directors where it received unanimous approval.

Copies of all financial statements and reports

are available to all NOIA members and can be

obtained by calling the NOIA office.

NOIA President, Randall Luthi gave his report on the association’s activities and priorities. Issues and areas addressed were:

• Personnel• Legislative review• Administration and regulatory review• NOIA outreach• Social media• Annual and Fall meetings• Membership• NOIA PAC• Technology plan• Membership survey• Potential NOIA studies, which could

be commissioned and later used to en-hance our mission and support the off-shore industry.

• Upcoming prioritiesPermitting & SalesFive Year PlanTechnology Sharing WorkshopsAlaskaAllied MembersJobs MessageTechnology Plan

See full text of President’s report on page 12

NOIA Vice Chairman, Dick Alario, Chair-man, President & CEO, Key Energy Ser-vices, serving in the role of Nominating Committee Chairman, proposed that the following NOIA members of the Board serve on the 2013 Nominating Committee:

• Lawrence Dickerson, President & CEO, Diamond Offshore Drilling

• Bruce Gresham, President, North America, Heerema Marine Contractors

• Richard Lunam, Vice President North America Exploration, ConocoPhillips

• Jack Moore, Chairman, President & CEO, Cameron

The proposal was unanimously approved.

With no new business being brought to the table, Chairman Chiles passed the floor to Membership Committee Chairman, Dave Lawrence, Executive Vice President, Ex-ploration & Commercial, Shell Energy Re-sources Company.

Membership CommitteeChairman Lawrence reviewed member de-velopment efforts for the first three quar-ters of the year and focused much of his comments on the combined, and very suc-cessful, meeting of the Board of Directors and Membership Committee that had been held in Houston in June.

During the course of that meeting discus-sion centered around emerging industry trends; how this association addresses current and future needs of the industry; where the growth opportunities exist with-in the industry; and internally, what we


NOIA Chairman Bill Chiles

NOIA Executive Committee &

Board of Directors (Above & Below)


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need to work on to make our organization stronger and a more attractive investment for prospective members.

Also brought forward for discussion was a proposed new NOIA brochure that was under development with the considerable help of NOIA members George and Danny Foster, Foster Communications. This is a document to be used not only as part of our prospective member packet but as a corporate descriptive brochure. Lawrence noted that the brochure has been complet-ed and is among the materials being dis-tributed at this meeting.

Lawrence thanked the membership for their efforts to strengthen and sustain the growth of this association by the addition of new members and encouraged all pres-ent to continue to reach out wherever pos-sible to those in the industry whom they consider to be viable candidates for mem-bership in NOIA.

If you have any prospects for new mem-bership, please contact Franki Stuntz or any member of the NOIA staff at 202-347-6900.

preSident’S report NOIA continues to press our message that increased oil and gas development in the outer continental shelf means more jobs, more energy security and more energy reliability. Being an election year, never has there been a better time to keep driv-ing this message home, and NOIA and the other trade associations are keeping on point.

This meeting concluded most of our 40th anniversary activities.

perSonnel We have had turnover since the Annual Meeting. As mentioned in March, Emily Toner landed a great job as an assistant for NBC Universal’s Government Rela-tions Director. D’Anne Mica returned to consulting in Florida. Faith Burns is the new executive assistant for Franki and Randall. Jeff Vorberger and Michael Ke-arns have rejoined NOIA. Robert Myers was hired as the Director of Public Affairs.

leGiSlative Front It has truly been a tale of two Houses. The House has passed legislation autho-rizing expansion of offshore access and production. The Senate has not. Noth-ing particularly good is being passed and nothing particularly bad is being passed. Most predict that little agreement will be reached on any issues until elections deter-mine a direction. NOIA continues a great relationship with staff and members of Congress. We have been consulted and provided draft lan-guage for various pieces of legislation, in-cluding bills authorizing additional sales and appropriations language.

NOIA board members also visited with members of Congress and the adminis-tration for our Fall Fly in. They included Bill Chiles, Dick Alario, Doug Polk, Brady Como, Scott Cameron, Quinn Hebert, Kevin McEvoy, David Moles, Bill New and Richard Williams. Twenty –one congres-sional offices were visited and some board members met with Acting Assistant Sec-

Randall Luthi


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retary Marcilynn Burke and Director James Watson.

Our next fly in is tentatively scheduled for the day before our Annual Meeting in April, so, if any of you are interested, please let me know.

adminiStrative/reGulatoryDespite the rhetoric of the election about increased home grown energy, increased access to the OCS is not part of the cur-rent Administration’s plan.

NOIA, generally in concert with the oth-er major trade associations, commented on various rule making proposals, envi-ronmental impact statements and other policy statements. As reported last fall, litigation is on the rise. I think it is im-portant that we look for appropriate times to participate in important litigation. You gave me authorization to pursue filing an amicus brief in the sale litigation and we will do so.

Idle Iron and Rigs to Reefs A letter to Secretary Salazar outlining our concerns about the pace of rigs to reefs permitting was released to continue our efforts in securing alternative paths for rig decommissioning.

Marine Spatial PlanningThe Administration continues its push to zone the oceans through an executive or-der. We will continue to work with Con-gress and state related organizations to express grave concerns over the direction of this program.

noia outreachSince this past January, we have issued 24 press releases or statements, respond-ed to 31 media inquiries and given 15 pre-sentations at various meetings and con-ventions. NOIA staff and members have submitted 20 op-eds and 16 have been published. We are in the third printing of the NOIA brochure, designed particularly for potential members.

We continue to advance our state outreach efforts, particularly in Virginia which saw its 2011 lease sale cancelled and was not included in the new Five Year Plan. NOIA staff recently participated in multi-ple energy forums in Richmond, including Governor McDonnell’s annual energy con-vention, and we continue our close work-ing relationship with state business lead-ers including the Virginia Manufacturers Association and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

As we head into 2013, we will expand these efforts to include South Carolina and other southeastern states eager for offshore leasing.

Social media Through the hiring of Robert Myers, we are greatly expanding our push to be part of the web. Studies indicate that more and more people are using the web for their education and if we aren’t tell-ing the story of the offshore oil and gas industry, others, not necessarily support-ers, will fill the void. This past year we have increased our Facebook followers to 860 with an average weekly reach of over 2,000 people.

Randall LuthiPresident

Faith BurnsExecutive Assistant to the President

Franki Stuntz Senior Vice President,Adminstration & Membership

Ann Chapman Vice President,Conferences & Special Events

Nicolette Nye Vice President,Communications & External Relations

Luke JohnsonVice President,Policy & Government Affairs

Jeff VorbergerVice President,Intergovernmental & Political Affairs

Michael KearnsVice President,Government Relations

Robert V. Myers, IIIDirector of Public Affairs

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Twitter followers have increased to 287 and we have reached over 233,000 people through retweets and mentions. We are in the process of a new web page design and just recently launched a NOIA LinkedIn account. Digital media is always chang-ing and we are constantly working on ex-panding our reach.

annual and Fall meetinGSOften referred to the Gold Card of meet-ings, we continue to attempt to book lead-ing speakers, discuss relevant topics and make our meetings informative and enjoy-able. Our goal is to break even on meet-ings, but the margin depends entirely on registrations and cancellations. memberShip Since our last Fall Meeting our member-ship has increased by 25 members which correlates to over $200,000.00 in dues. More than 70 member packets have been sent to prospective members.

The Membership Committee and Board of Directors had a very successful meet-ing in Houston in July. It was determined that we would add a meeting of this na-ture during each summer and gear it to-ward prospective members. Thank you for encouraging your colleagues and even competitors to join us.

We have set a goal of maintaining no less than 350 members in the future. That number can only be reached by going up the vendor chain with your continued sup-port and effort.

noia pacThis has been, by far, the most active NOIA has been with the PAC. We dis-bursed nearly $200,000 to 85 candidates in the 2011-2012 election cycle. This included targeted geographic areas we have not traditionally focused on, namely the southeast to coincide with our legisla-tive efforts.

Candidates to which we maxed out in-clude Connie Mack – FL Senate, George Allen – VA Senate, and Jeff Duncan – SC House.

We continued our support of those serving on the House Natural Resources and Sen-ate Environment and Natural Resources Committees.

Breaking tradition, NOIA supported sev-eral House and Senate challengers this cycle. Again, focus was on southeastern states, candidates with a desire to serve on Natural Resources Committee, and key Senate races with vast disparity in candidates’ position on offshore i.e. Wil-son-Heinrich and Mack-Nelson.

The NOIA PAC Advisory Committee is providing great leadership and direction to the PAC, including the disbursement of additional funds in the final weeks before the election as agreed upon at the Fall Meeting.


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technoloGy planThe technology plan continues to be im-plemented and is designed to project our hardware and software needs over the next five-year period. We are now all on consistent software programs and hard-ware equipment. As reported in March our membership data base (IMIS) is now updated and is cloud based and our new, significantly upgraded telephone system is in place.

Survey NOIA members will receive a brief survey concerning our website and services pro-vided by NOIA.

other activitieSI am privileged to be a Board Member of the Offshore Energy Center, the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED) and the Center for Offshore Safety.

potential noia StudieS At the Finance Committee meeting in September, I was given an assignment to propose some additional studies in which NOIA could commission and later use to enhance our mission and the offshore in-dustry. Here are some possibilities:

NOIA/API Jobs Study Version 2 I think we really just scratched the sur-face on identifying vendors and suppliers and job creators that provide support to the offshore energy industry. We need better numbers and we need better iden-tification of them and their locations. The data from the study can be used on the Hill and is a great message as new re-

gions for exploration and development are considered.

Education and jobsThis could be a university conducted study whereby degrees could be compared with degrees that lead to jobs in the oil patch. It is likely data would show that oil and gas related degrees lead to more jobs and higher paying jobs than many other degrees.

Safety/TechnologyWe have some data, but I think we could commission a study of offshore related ac-cidents with other industries. We’ve used this in the past, but it might be useful to have again. Director Watson’s recent comments about a possible need to take a time out for technology to catch up with industry’s development capability is likely a misconception. There might be data out there to prove this.

Oil in the SeasWe could request Congress to direct the National Academy of Sciences to update their Oil in the Seas study. The last one we have been using indicates that only about 1% of the oil in the seas is attribut-able to offshore exploration and develop-ment.

Where is the Oil? One of our pushes for exploration outside the GOM is that we don’t have a good idea of what is out there. This study could identify what areas have been looked at and when (shallow and decades ago), what needs to be looked at (deeper and now) and maybe give some realistic time frames of production realities.

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Planning, Zoning & Oil and Gas DevelopmentWe would like to study information from Federal onshore planning efforts and whether it has actually shortened the per-mitting time line along with its effects on production.

prioritieSPermitting and Sales We will continue to push and work with the Administration to see that sales are held and the permitting pace picks up.

Five Year Plan We continue to push Congress for changes to the current five year plan.

Technology Sharing WorkshopsSchedule one or more additional work-shops with BOEM and/or BSEE, Coast Guard and possibly NOAA through the Technology Policy Committee.

AlaskaAs the potential for offshore activities in-creases, so should NOIA’s interest. We have, and will continue, to work closely with the Alaska Congressional Delega-tion and NOIA members Shell, ENI and ConocoPhillips. Allied Members Allied members are other trade organiza-tions with similar goals. To increase our ability to communicate and coordinate, we have increased our allied membership. The Alaska Oil and Gas Association and GEST are the newest allied members.

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Jobs MessageWe will continue to push the message of job creation through all means.

Technology Plan We will continue to update and replace out of warranty and out of date equipment on a regular basis. The website and design will also be part of the technology plan.

next meetinG

The NOIA Membership will next meet for the 2013 Annual Meeting, April 17-19 at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC. We hope to see you there!

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Mark & Shari Miller, Terresolve Technologies;

Doug & Marie Polk, Vallourec & Mannesmann USAPeter Laborde, Renee Lejeune, Sylvia, John, Cliffe Laborde,

Laborde Marine Management

Doug Pferdehirt, FMC Technologies;

Dave Welch, Stone Energy Corporation

Gabriel Osorio, Ecopetrol America; Becky & George Banos,

Edison Chouest Offshore; Diana OsorioGinnie Muller, Tatum LLC, Stacy & Richard Clark, Deep Gulf Energy;

Pam & Barnes Darwin, ExxonMobil Production Company; Evelyn &

Roger Medvin, Core Laboratories

Carl & Lois Davis, Forum Energy Technologies;

Cheryl & Dave Lawrence, Shell Energy Resources Company

Barbara & Roy Markum, Pennwell

Copies of all presentations mentioned in this report are available on the noiA member’s section of the website at www.noia.org

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Sandra Mourton, Offshore Energy Center;

Bill & Mary Yost, Baker Hughes Incorporated;

Therese & Darrell Hollek, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

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Bill Flores, Houston Energy; Randy Vines, Plains Exploration;

Jason Nye, Statoil

Russ & Anne-Marie Laas, Hart Energy;

Kim & Brad Adkins, Harris-Caprock Communications

Michelle Ellsworth, Jacquie & Tom Hood, Ellsworth Corpora-

tion; Jennifer Comeaux, NecesSea; Kylie Ramsay, Aries Marine

Corporation; Brian Comeaux, NecesSea, Court Ramsay, Aries

Marine Corporation

Don Jacobsen, Noble Corporation;

Jeanine & Doug Pferdehirt, FMC Technologies

Kathy & Bill Gray, Pisces Energy

Chris Orth, Monty Orr, Tidewater; Cliffe Laborde, Laborde

Marine Management; Bill Gray, Pisces Energy

noiA 2013 AnnuAl meetinG

APril 17-19 the ritz-CarltonWashington, DC

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Pamela & Kevin Lasseigne, Edison Chouest Offshore; Tammy &

Lee Orgeron, Montco Offshore; Moe & Vickie Plaisance, Dia-

mond Offshore Drilling; Kara & Paul Danos, Danos

John Reed, Cal Dive International; Nick Swyka, Simmons &

Company International; Richard Williams, Fugro Chance

Sandi Gresham, Heerema Marine Contractors, US;

Paige Erickson, Dockwise; Deidre Reed, Cal Dive

Tom Moyers, Cameron; Laslo & Magdi Olah, Texas Institute of

Science; Rob Saltiel, Atwood Oceanics

Danny & George Foster, Foster Marketing;

Bill Chiles, Bristow Group

Peter Laborde, Renee Lejeune, Laborde Marine Management; Shel-

ley & Alan Breaud, Breaud & Meyers

Moe Plaisance, Diamond Offshore Drilling; Jack Moore,

Cameron; Don Jacobson, Noble Corporation

Matt Rigdon, Lee Jackson, Jackson Offshore Operators;

Larry Rigdon, Terresolve Technologies

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Michelle Hobbs, TGS-NOPEC Geophysical; Stacy & Richard

Clark, Deep Gulf Energy; Scott Cameron, Shell Energy Resources

Company; Robert Hobbs, TGS-NOPEC Geophysical

Vickie Plaisance, Diamond Offshore; Kirk Headley, AMPOL;

Mary Flores, Houston Energy; Brenda Headley, AMPOL

Kimberly Meunier, Kiewit Oil, Gas & Chemical;

Peggy & Greg Rhodes, Subsea 7; Sandi & Reid Gresham,

Heerema Marine Contractors US

Jennifer Comeaux, Jennifer Medcalf, NecesSea

Tom & Aletha Moyers, Tarrol & Nolan Roberts, Cameron;

Evelyn Medvin, Core Laboratories;

Pam Darwin, ExxonMobil Production Company

Frank & Diana Lyon, Newpark Resources; Michelle & Alex Ells-

worth, Ellsworth Corporation

John & Julie Abadie, Cal Dive International;

Randi & Stu Brightman, TETRA Technologies

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