World Meteorological Organization

IOGP/JCOMM/WCRP Workshop on Climate Change and the Offshore Inductry

A workshop on “Climate change and the offshore industry”, co-sponsored by the Met-Ocean Committee of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (OGP), the WMO and IOC through the Joint Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM) and the World Climate Research Programme will take place, at the Headquarters of the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, Switzerland from 27-29 May 2008.

 

Objectives of the Workshop

• gather evidence on the climate change, its emerging impacts on the offshore activities and review the evolving industry requirements for MetOcean services in a changing climate;
• identify and prioritize key areas for future research and development towards the adaptation of the offshore industry and its MetOcean services to climate change;
• strengthen coordination of existing and future research and development initiatives for better protection of the marine environment and increased safety and efficiency of offshore operations.

 

The main goal of the workshop is to provide the offshore industry with the most up-to-date information from the science community on a range of relevant climate change issues such as potential increased storm intensity. From an engineering perspective, estimates are required of expected changes over the next 10-50 years of the probability distributions for key parameters such as wind speed and wave height, including conditions used by the industry for design and estimation of downtime, operability, etc.  Environmental perspectives require quantification of changes in the means and probability distributions of some other key parameters such as current velocity, surface roughness, air and water temperature, etc. In addition to the estimation of “most probable” changes, it is very important for the industry to assess the uncertainties in the estimates for both means and probability distributions. Guidance for the industry may also be required with respect to new forecasting services related to predicting extreme events at sea. The workshop will make an effort to identify key topics for future research and potential collaborations.

The desired outcomes include the development of joint research activities based on the key topics identified during the meeting, with collaborative participation between industry, the science community and service providers.

 

Provisional Program

 

Chairs: Mr Christopher Shaw and Mr Val Swail

 

Tuesday, 27 May 2008

07:30 – 09:00             Workshop Registration Desk Open

09:00                       Opening Ceremony

09:15 – 11:00            Co-sponsors Overview

 

OGP Overview (Mr Christopher Shaw, Chairperson of the OGP Metocean Committee)

WCRP Overview (Dr Ghassem R. Asrar, WCRP Director)

JCOMM Overview (Dr Jean-Louis Fellous, JCOMM Co-president)

GSSC Overview (Dr Ralph Rayner, Chairperson of the GSSC)

IPCC Overview (Prof Thomas Stocker)

 

11:00 - 11:30  Coffee Break

11:30 – 12:50  Tropical Storms (Dr Thomas Knutson and Dr John McBride)

12:50 - 14:15  Lunch

14:15– 15:35  Extra-tropical Storms (Dr Sergey Gulev and Dr Sofia Caires)

15:35– 16:15 Statistics and Uncertainty (Dr Xiaolan Wang)

16:15 - 16:45  Coffee Break

16:45 – 17:25 Tropical cyclone synthetic storms modeling (Mr Stan Stroud and Prof Lance Leslie)

17:25 – 18:45  Discussion - Breakout groups (Tropical and Extra-tropical Storms, and Statistics and Uncertainty)

 

Wednesday, 28 May 2008

09:00 – 10:30  Discussion - Plenary (Tropical and Extra-tropical Storms, and Statistics and Uncertainty)

10:30 - 11:00  Coffee Break

11:00 – 11:40 Sea Level (Dr John Church)

11:40 – 12:20 Arctic (Dr Vladimir Ryabinin and Dr Julienne Stroeve) 

12:20 - 14:00  Lunch

14:00 – 14:40 Insurance Industry Plans (Dr Rick Murnane)

14:40 – 16:00 Discussion - Plenary (Sea level, Arctic and Insurance Industry Plans)

16:00 - 16:30  Coffee Break

16:30– 18:00  Discussion - Breakout groups (Identification of key areas/priorities and way forward)

 

Thursday, 29 May 2008

09:00 – 10:30  Discussion – Plenary (Identification of key areas/priorities and way forward)

10:30 - 11:00  Coffee Break

11:00 – 11:20  Announcement of the World Climate Conference 3 (WCC-3) (Mr William Nyakwada)

11:20 – 12:00  Summary and Closure of the Workshop 

 

Logistics

The Workshop will be conducted in English.  Presentations are planned to be of 30 minutes duration, followed by 15 minutes for questions and discussion. Breakout sessions are planned to deliver a set of recommendations on these issues, in particular to address requirements and gaps.

Approximately 80 participants will represent intergovernmental organizations, offshore industry and their consultants, insurance companies, National Meteorological Services and academia at the two and a half day workshop.  Attendance at the workshop is by invitation only.  According to established procedures, financial assistance by the co-sponsoring organizations will not be available to support participation in this event.

A Technical Report on a CD-ROM will be produced by WMO, containing workshop presentations, summaries of the discussion sessions and breakout groups, a summary report of the final wrap up discussion, and an Action Plan with recommendations for offshore industry, intergovernmental organizations, national institutions, and the global research community outlining the way forward.  The workshop proceedings will also be displayed on the workshop Web site.

All relevant information regarding hotel accommodation and other logistics, are currently available here.

 

Organizing Committee

Mr Christopher Shaw, Chairperson of the OGP Met-ocean Committee

Dr Colin Grant, Met-ocean advisor, OGP

Mr Cort Cooper, Met-ocean advisor, OGP

Mr Johannes Guddal, former JCOMM Co-president

Dr Craig Donlon, Coordinator of the JCOMM Services Programme Area

Mr Val Swail, Chairperson of the JCOMM Expert Team on Wind Waves and Storm Surges

Dr John Church, Chairperson of the Joint Scientific Committee of the WCRP

Dr Sergey Gulev, Officer of the Joint Scientific Committee of the WCRP

Dr Vladimir Ryabinin, Joint Planning Staff for WCRP

Dr Albert Fischer, IOC Secretariat for JCOMM and WCRP

Ms Alice Soares, WMO Secretariat for JCOMM