Offshore Europe 2009 is on track to be the biggest event yet of the biennial north-east showcase for the oil and gas industry.
The number of companies booked so far to exhibit at this year’s show in Aberdeen is 5% up at the same stage on the 2007 event, which was the largest yet and brought an estimated £40million into the north-east economy.
Show organiser Offshore Europe Partnership (OEP), a joint venture between Reed Exhibitions and the Society of Petroleum Engineers, said yesterday that in difficult times offshore oil and gas companies recognised the value of continuing to market themselves as well as possible to the right audience.
Exhibition manager Elaine Hulse said: “There is of course a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace. Offshore Europe is an excellent opportunity for people to market their companies and products, see what their competitors are doing, and see the latest techniques and technologies that are available to the market.”
The number of companies booked to appear at the 18th biennial Offshore Europe from September 8-11, 2009 now stands at about 1,200.
There were 1,455 exhibiting companies at the 2007 event. They also took more space than before in 2007, covering 223,000-plus square feet at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre.
OEP said it had managed to extend the show’s available floor space by adding an additional show hall, targeted mainly, but not exclusively, to provide space for Aberdeen-based small and medium businesses.
It added that the extra space was already virtually sold out. The total exhibition floor space sold so far is more than 215,000sq ft.
OEP also said that Offshore Europe continued to attract strong international interest from exhibitors, with country pavilions booked from China, the US, Norway, Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Canada and Colombia, among others.
The Chinese presence was a major boost, with China having taken six pavilions for the event, more than doubling its presence from 2007, organisers said.
Thomas Thune Andersen, chief executive of Maersk Oil, said: “Offshore Europe started as a conference and exhibition centred around the North Sea but over the many conferences and exhibitions we have seen a very natural expansion into a much wider international forum.
“The technologies and discussions here have relevance for other parts of the world and we are equally seeing that industry issues from other parts of the world are being brought to this forum.”
Industry professionals from 96 countries worldwide attended the September 2007, with the total of 40,179 visitors breaking the record for attendance.