Agenda

XIV Annual Forum
“Strategic Vision for a Brand New World”
October 4, 2011
Rice University • Houston, Texas

Time                                          Title and Speaker

7:30 –  8:00 am       Continental Breakfast & Networking

8:00 – 8:10 am       Welcome
Mike Coffey, Chairman, Board of Directors
Rice Global E&C Forum

8:10 –  8:20 am       Opening Remarks
Edwin “Ned” Thomas, Dean
George R. Brown School of Engineering
Rice University

8:20 –  9:10 am       Morning Keynote Speaker
James Bernhard, CEO, Shaw Group

“Powering Our Future” The global demand for energy continues to increase at a staggering rate. As the industry works to meet the growing demand, several obstacles emerge regarding fuel supply, generation, transmission and regulation changes. Mr. Bernhard will discuss the global challenges and opportunities as the industry prepares for the future. The Shaw Group Inc. is a Fortune 500 company serving the energy, chemicals, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response industries.

9:10 –   9:50 am       Dr. Thevarak Rochanapruk, Vice President and
Project Director, PTT Phenol Company Ltd.

“2011: The challenge of doing an EPC project in Thailand” Thailand is undergoing through a tumultuous period ever since the putsch in 2006. A New constitution was installed incorporating several environmental clauses which have severely impacted the expansion plan of the Thai petrochemical industry.  This presentation is about a Greenfield Bisphenol-A (BPA) project which started several months after the new constitution.  The project is owned by a state enterprise and is the largest single train BPA plant in the world. The paper will touch on the various impediments that the project has encountered, and the new challenges facing the future oncoming projects.

9:50 – 10:20 am      Coffee and Networking Break

10:20 – 11:00 am      John Rogers, Consultant, D. A. Davidson & Co.

“Wall Street’s Perspective on E&C Stocks .  .  .  Short Attention Span Owners in a Cyclical Volatile Industry” An increasing portion of E&C companies have turned to equity markets as a source of capital and liquidity, but not all E&C stocks are valued similarly.  What determines valuation levels in this industry and what are investors looking for/expecting of companies? What are the industry themes or opportunities which are most interesting to investors and what are the biggest concerns? A long-time wall street analyst provides his perspective on E&C stocks and the most interesting opportunities ahead.

11:00 – 11:40 am      Loic des Deserts, CEO, DORIS Engineering

11:40 – 1:10 pm        Lunch & Networking

1:10 –  1:15 pm        Introduction Afternoon Program
Mike Coffey, Chairman, Board of Directors
Rice Global E&C Forum

1:15 –  2:05 pm       Afternoon Keynote Speaker
Alan Armstrong, CEO, Williams Companies

“Deconstructing Project Risks: The New Reality of Risk-Sharing to Create Competitive Advantage” Complex, contentious permitting is creating a new reality of unprecedented fluidity and variability in project design. The more complex the permitting process, the greater the opportunity for E&C firms to differentiate and create competitive advantage. Williams is a Fortune 500 owner-operator of large-scale infrastructure designed to maximize the opportunities created by the vast supply of natural gas and natural gas products now known to exist in North America’s unconventional resource plays. Williams has a heritage as in the E&C business; it spent the first 60 of its 103-year history in the E&C business, constructing pipelines for others around the world.

2:05 –  2:45 pm        Daniel Ju, President, SK E&C

“A Perspective of the World E&C Stage” Founded in 1977, SK E&C has become a multibillion-dollar engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services subsidiary of conglomerate SK Group with a wide range of design and construction experience the petroleum refining industry, including all phases of design, purchasing, construction, and commissioning.  As the worldwide economy has globalized, SK E&C has participated, implementing full-scale refinery projects in Brazil, Ghana, and Kuwait and contributing to projects in Brazil, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Thailand, the UAE, and U.S.  This presentation will describe how SK E&C and other Korean E&C companies perceive the global E&C market and the strategies they’ve used to rise to prominence on the world stage.

2:45 –  3:15 pm        Afternoon Networking Break

3:15 –  3:55 pm        Jim Peters, Head of Americas Downstream Consulting, Wood Mackenzie

“The Future of Downstream and What it Means for E&C” With oil product demand growth focused in Asia Pacific, we expect that to be the focus of large-scale refinery capacity addition projects.  North America capital project emphasis will shift from volume additions to product quality projects as refiners comply with tightening product specifications and increasingly difficult feedstocks to process.  In addition the fuel mix will migrate to more alternative fuel technologies, such as cellulosic ethanol and algae.  Thus, E&C firms will need to expand their technology deployment experience to emerging fuel-make capabilities and also develop ways to leverage this expanding expertise to capture a younger workforce with different work objectives than prior generations.

3:55 –  4:35 pm       Thomas “Tom” H. Zarges, Chairman, URS Energy & Construction

“Tomorrow’s Workforce: Overcoming the Gap Between the Generations” A recognized critical issue for many years is the age gap that exists within our industry.  We are at risk of losing some of the most qualified talent as they close in on retirement, at a time when opportunities have been limited for our upcoming, younger staff to gain the experience necessary to lead the multi-million and multi-billion dollar projects of the future.  URS will explore the issues associated with this challenge and discuss best practices in talent development and deployment to ensure continuity of service from generation to generation.

4:35 –  4:40 pm         Closing Remarks & iPad Drawing – all registrants are entered for this drawing; must be present to win.
Mike Coffey, Chairman, Board of Directors
Rice Global E&C Forum