The organizers of next year's ONS conference and exhibition in Stavanger are marking the event's 40th anniversary with a look back at the first time the event was held in 1974.
However, next year's event will also very much be looking forward. The main theme of ONS 2014 will be "Change".
Much has changed in the 40 years since the first ONS, said the organizers.
Oil prices have risen and fallen. And risen again. The industry has taken technological quantum leaps ahead – and down into ultra-deep reservoirs.
Major field developments have been replaced by less costly subsea solutions. New business areas and occupational tasks arise, while others have disappeared. Fewer people work offshore, and more of production is managed from onshore operations centres.
At the same time, the world is constantly changing – through democracy processes, industrialization and war.
Political and financial centres move, and new countries come to dominate the energy stage. What will this mean in terms of access to energy in the future? asks ONS.
Energy requirements and consumption has increased – and continues to do so dramatically. The climate is changing, which in turn spurs change and action from the global community. Access to resources is also shifting its centre of gravity, and affects the markets, such as for example shale gas has done.
"We know that everything changes, so the question is what is around the next corner," says ONS. "Which natural resources will be most in demand? Which will we stop turning into energy?
"Will renewable forms of energy become commercial enough to create an explosion in innovation and business development like that in the oil and gas industry? It is the combined global technology industry that drives the world forward. The oil and gas industry is a natural component of this high-tech wheel.
"Which changes will affect the industry in the years to come? And how will the industry's innovation and technology development lead to world change?"
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