With the Australian oil and gas industry expected to spend up to £15.4billion on new projects in the next five years alone, Australia is a key market for Scottish companies in this sector looking to tap into new markets.
Although Scotland and Australia are almost as geographically far apart as it is possible to be, and Scotland’s landmass equates to only 1% of Australia’s, there are a number of synergies between the two countries which make it an ideal place for Scottish companies to do business.
These include the same language, similar business and legal cultures and a mutual abundance of natural resources. At the end of last month, Scottish Development International led a delegation of 25 companies to Perth in Western Australia to find out more about the opportunities this experience can bring to the Australian market.
Alan Henderson of Scottish Development International, who organised the trade mission, said: “Over the past 40 years Scotland has built up a global reputation for finding new solutions to operating in the harsh conditions of the North Sea, particularly in areas such as deep-water subsea technologies, health and safety and quality standards.
“We know that this experience has the potential to create significant opportunities for Scottish companies in the Australian oil and gas industry.
“Australia is already an important market, ranked our third highest export market for our oil and gas companies – and the companies which recently visited the country as part of the trade mission are ideally placed to build on these successes. In fact, three of those which took part in the mission – WFS Technologies, Opus and QEM -all launched new products to the Australian market while in Perth.”
Scottish Development International is holding a Smart Exporter market awareness breakfast seminar at the Marcliffe Hotel in Aberdeen on Tuesday, April 16, for companies interested in learning more about these opportunities.
For further information and to register for the seminar, visit www.sdi.co.uk/events