Oil giants plan for the future

ABERDEEN will this week play host to senior executives from the world's biggest oil and gas firms, who are meeting to determine the sector's future technology needs.

Directors from firms including BP, Shell, Chevron, Statoil and GDF Suez are set to discuss the industry's "technology gaps" - with the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster just one of a series of topics the industry plans to address in 2011.

The annual event is hosted by the ITF, a not-for-profit group based in Aberdeen, which is owned by and acts as an "honest broker" between major oil and gas operators and service firms.