Tulsa, OK, USA (19 January 2015) – The Offshore Technology Conference’s (OTC) 2015 Arctic Technology Conference (ATC) has announced its 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award honorees for the Individual and the Company/Organization/Institution Categories. Award honorees were unanimously chosen after months of careful consideration and deliberation on the award nominations in both categories. The ATC 2015 Awards Committee, led by Chair Norman Carnahan, will recognize Dan Masterson for Individual Achievement, and the Chukchi Sea Environmental Studies Program and its supporting entities – Olgoonik-Fairweather, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Statoil – for the Companies’ Achievement. The recipients will be honored at the ATC 2015 Distinguished Achievement Awards Luncheon scheduled for Tuesday during the conference being held 23–25 March 2015 in Copenhagen Denmark.

ATC Distinguished Achievement Award for Individuals
Recently retired ice scientist and ice engineer Dan Masterson will be honored for his significant advancements to the ice sciences and also to the design and construction of pioneering Arctic projects.

Dan’s career achievements started in the 1970's with pioneering engineering work for Panarctic Oils through the design and construction of floating ice platforms to support both drilling operations and floating airstrips for large aircraft.

Dan has been a leader in ice science research programs and major offshore Arctic projects. He has combined good science with sound practical engineering experience to be able to define ice loads on structures and also to implement the use of ice as an engineering material.

In more recent years, Dan has also played a lead role in the development of ice load criteria for Arctic standards including the Canadian Offshore Standard S-471, API RP2N and the new ISO Standard 19906 for Arctic Offshore Structures.

Dan Masterson has provided engineering leadership and mentoring support for younger engineers which is the hallmark of a professional engineer.

ATC Distinguished Achievement Award for Companies, Organizations or Institutions

This award recognizes the co-design and safe operation of one of the largest, most robust multidisciplinary science programs in the world – the Chukchi Sea Environmental Science Program (CSESP). Going on its seventh year in 2015, the CSESP is operated by Olgoonik-Fairweather and supported by ConocoPhillips, Shell and Statoil.  The CSESP aims to characterize pre-exploration baseline information on the ecology of the region and, despite innumerable potential logistical and natural hazards, has operated with zero recordable injuries with over 395,000 man-exposure hours and across 13,000 vessel miles. The CSESP covers 37,000 square kilometers of the northeastern Chukchi Sea and the program focuses on nine main science disciplines including: seabirds, marine mammals, plankton, physical oceanography, sediments, benthic studies, acoustic monitoring, chemical oceanography and fisheries. 

Over two hundred presentations, posters and papers have been presented so far using data collected from the CSESP.  The historic unprecedented data sharing agreement with NOAA, signed by the three sponsoring companies, has enabled all CSESP environmental data to be shared freely with the public through NOAA and the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) websites.

Olgoonik-Fairweather, supported by ConocoPhillips, Shell and Statoil, has built an unparalleled program with their safety record, project extent and determination to make all research and data transparent and public. They are environmental leaders and have created a program that should be considered a case study in best practices for environmental baseline studies.

For the first time, ATC is incorporating the Distinguished Achievement Awards into its program. Modeled after the prestigious OTC Awards of the same name, these awards honor an individual and a company/organization or institution for their major technological, humanitarian, environmental and leadership contributions to the Arctic industry.

In its fourth year, ATC brings together Arctic industry leaders and professionals from around the globe. It is the world’s most focused comprehensive technical conference and exhibition for Arctic E&P professionals. Registration is open and the entire technical program and event details can be found online at www.arctictechnologyconference.org .