NAPE Expo sees less attendance, exhibitors -- and doodads

— The bi-annual North American Prospect Expo may not be as well-known as some other energy gatherings, but it has been well-attended since starting up in 1993 and has served as a pretty reliable gauge of industry's health.

The most recent NAPE last week showed, perhaps not unexpectedly, that the industry's pulse is a little weak and its temperature a bit short of the normal 98.6 degrees, but its overall vital signs still appear robust.

NAPE, a property fair held in early February and late August for those seeking to sell, swap or farm out oil and natural gas prospects, typically generates hundreds of millions of dollars or more in deals per show for onshore and offshore properties in the US, Canada and a select few foreign countries outside North America. It is sponsored by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society of Exploration Geophysicists and the American Association of Professional Landmen.

Thanks to nearly a year of economic recession, both attendance and exhibitors were down at last week's summer NAPE from peak figures of 2008. NAPE officials estimated attendance at around 5,500 versus 6,739 a year ago. And 412 companies exhibited this year against 450 last year. That may not seem like a huge drop, but the type of exhibitors has shifted also.

In years past, virtually all of the big public oil and gas operators were out there shopping prospects -- numbers of them. This year, small privates dominated the list. Even some bigger companies that did have booths, such as Devon Energy and Chesapeake Energy, had just a few prospects and a few of the handful of public companies did not have any prospects to offer at all. "We just wanted to have a presence here," one such public company representative said.

One sign of the times is that shale plays made up a large portion of the properties being offered for farm-out. In particular, the Eagle Ford play in South Texas, where a small but growing group of operators are finding large well volumes of natural gas, seemed to be a focus for exhibitors. "We're getting a lot of inquiries," said a representiative of tiny privately-held Corpus Christi-based ZaZa Energy, which was shopping its Eagle Ford prospects.

"We had good energy and feelings in the air," Robin Forte, Executive Vice President of NAPE, told Platts. "When times are tough, NAPE comes through for industry."

But in addition to fewer attendees and booths, last week's NAPE also had a case of the dwindling doodads -- those little trinkety come-ons bearing oil company logos that are such fun to collect at corporate booths. The relative scarcity of these giveaways is one other indicator of tough times in the oil patch. Veteran NAPE attendees typically have in their possession dozens of logoed caps, tote bags, foam squeeze toys and other geegaws from years of attending these expositions. Inevitably larger or more technologically savvy companies offer more unusual items such as computer screen dust-wipers or small electronic thingamajigs. Sometimes playing with some packaged item whose purpose is an utter mystery can be a highlight of the day. Sadly, those whatnots that used to signify industry's gravy days were in not as plentiful at last week's NAPE as in years past.

When the doodads taper off, you know the road out there has been rocky.