IADC HSE & Sustainability Asia Pacific 2025 Conference & Exhibition

The International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) is pleased to issue a call for abstracts for presentations at the upcoming IADC HSE & Sustainability Asia Pacific 2025 Conference & Exhibition in Bangkok. We invite the industry to submit abstracts for presentations that align with our new vision for the conference. We welcome presentations that will provide substantial and practical information on timely HSE and Sustainability topics, while at the same time engaging – and even challenging – the audience to ask questions that will inspire thought-provoking discussions.

Suggested topics are outlined below, but other relevant topics are welcomed as well.

Future Energy Mix: The market predicts a need to drill wells until 2050. The near future will require a mix of alternative energy and fossil fuels. The ‘green transition’ has started and opens the discussion of the future of oil & gas. There will be a major shift in primary energy, renewables will dominate in 2050 but oil & gas will play an important role in this future energy mix. How will the transition be for HSE? What will be the role of the Drilling Contractors in this process?

Sustainability: This conference seeking presentations exploring creative and innovative social and environmental sustainability initiatives that impact community, employees, environment, ethical standards, or safety. What benchmarks and measurements are available or should be initiated?

Environmental Protection, Reduction of GHG Emissions and the Social License to Operate: As the industry seeks to tap hydrocarbon resources in frontier offshore areas like the Barents Sea and in unconventional onshore basins, the drilling industry must keep environmental protection at the forefront or risk losing it’s social license to operate. Opportunities to manage GHG emissions will extend the span of asset development and operation life cycle with the aid of technology and process innovation enhancement. What technical advances are available to drilling contractors to ensure sustainable operations? How can challenges around hydraulic fracturing be addressed? Presentations on cost-effective ways to reduce drilling’s environmental impact, including in sensitive areas, are welcome.

Solutions for Upstream Process Efficiency toward Reduction of GHG Emission: Activities such as fuel and power management, process and facility efficiency, transportation and logistics efficiency and methane emissions management are identified as key focus for the operators to improve their efficiency in O&G business, hence assist to reduce GHG emissions. How do operators and service providers play a role in wide range of activities to reduce GHG emissions? What other factors that can help to incentivize the drive towards reduction of GHG emissions.

Performance Optimization: Focus is shifting from reducing prices of goods and services to generating value by improving efficiency through technology, better work processes and changing standards. Collaboration – between operator and drilling contractor, between operator and service company, and among contractors themselves – has also become increasingly critical. Companies are invited to share experiences where improvements in technology, processes, standards and collaboration have helped to optimize their operations and performance.

Safety and Human Factors: With the increasing demand for drilling services, organizations must work harder to bring new employees. How can we address onboarding and training challenges? Share your innovations in safety technology; how to build company cultures to sustain incident-free operations; behavior-based safety; safety leadership; management of change; fitness for duty; and how to apply human factors to influence HSE results. Process safety-related topics are also of interest, including procedural compliance and self-verification; the use of leading and lagging indicators; hazard identification and risk management; and training and awareness.

Health & Well-being: A healthy workforce is a productive workforce. By creating a positive, safe and healthy environment for employees, companies can improve workforce engagement, improve employees’ work-life balance and even improve business performance. Case studies related to vitality, fitness for work and practical occupational health are welcome.

Industry 4.0: Data is more than a buzz word, and the drilling industry is increasingly learning to embrace data as the key element in pushing the next level of performance gains. A significant amount of data is already being collected, but how can the industry make such data actionable? Presentations are invited that share the state-of-the-art in data science, on cybersecurity, on innovations in applying data so that people on the rig can make better data-driven decisions, and on data standards and issues around interoperability.

Workforce Development, Training and Retention: The industry has learned from experience that it must continue to invest in talent recruitment, development and retention despite economic challenges. This is especially critical considering the rapid evolution of technology and the growing use of data to manage and optimize drilling operations. How can we skill the teams to keep the staff agile and adaptable to the market requirements? What changes are needed for current training programs? Any personnel retention tool to be shared with the industry peers? The industry still needs employees with the appropriate competencies to crew the rigs and to ensure wellbore integrity and safe operations. Presentations on innovative training methods, talent attraction, recruitment and retention, as well as engaging with next-generation employees, are invited. Workforce Diversity and Inclusion topics are also of interest.

Authors are invited to submit proposals for presentations at the conference. For consideration, an abstract for each proposed paper must be submitted to IADC no later than 30 November 2024. Authors of selected abstracts will receive confirmation and guidelines by 23 December 2024. Please note that formal papers are encouraged but are NOT required for this conference.

Authors of selected presentations may be asked to participate in panel discussions. Prior to abstract submission, internal management clearance must be obtained. Any issues concerning clearance should be outlined when the abstract is submitted.

To be selected, presentations should be of great interest to drilling contractors, operators, service companies, training institutions and equipment manufacturers. A detailed abstract must be submitted online.

Important Things to Remember
Commercialism: Material of a commercial nature is unacceptable in a technical paper. Often, generic descriptions can replace trade names. Plagiarism: Plagiarizing the work of others is unacceptable. If detected prior to presentation at a conference, your paper will be removed from the program.

We look forward to your participation and hope to see you at the IADC HSE & Sustainability Asia Pacific 2025 Conference & Exhibition!