It's Day 2 of the Offshore Technology Conference at Reliant Park, the world's foremost event for the development of offshore resources in the fields of drilling, exploration and oil production. The mood at Reliant today was high energy as guests from the world over (still, predominantly male) crowded into the concourses connecting the fair's various realms.

Of course, right now is an inauspicious moment for both Houston and offshore drilling, as more than 50,000 attendees and 2,000 companies exchange ideas while the leaked oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster begins to wash ashore Gulf states, a mere 400 hundred miles away.

The disaster's fallout will certainly entail new regulatory red tape, negative publicity and, some fear, a possible halt to new offshore drilling. Yet an air of detachment pervaded those questioned at the fair.

"It's just another accident," said Eric Pieters, visiting from Amsterdam for Micanti, a Dutch oil technology firm. Pieters, the company's commercial director, elaborated, "There's no ill will toward the U.S. in Europe about the event. It's just that something that happens. It was an honest mistake."

Ray Cann, a quality control manager with Trelleborg Corporation had just arrived at OTC for his first time from the United Kingdom this morning, when he stated, "It's a big topic of conversation among my colleagues in England," adding, "But nobody's mentioned it here."

Fortunately, the disaster is still on some attendees' minds: "I think a lot of emphasis this year is on making sure our oil rigs are safe, and that there's no hazard to the environment," said Niti Shrivastava, a Houstonian representing Process Safety and Reliability Group. "A lot of people have been coming around and asking, 'Do you do offshore blast analysis?'," she added, "Apart from that, it's a mix of everything. This is the biggest turnout in recent years."

Both Shrivastava and The New York Times suggest that this year's event may be the biggest ever, but OTC is still operating at half-capacity in comparison to the 1982 attendance figure of 108,000, just before the oil glut that toppled Houston's energy industry.

To a certain extent, BP, the contractor of the Horizon and largest oil producer in the Gulf, is keeping a low profile at the conference, canceling its lunchtime presentation, "The Challenges and Rewards in Operating in the World's Offshore Basins." At yesterday's address by BP America vice president of exploration and production Jackie Mutschler, a moment of silence was held for the 11 workers lost in April's blast.