EIC’s Energy Exports Conference is around the corner and the group’s CEO Stuart Broadley has laid out why the UK supply chain should be paying attention.
“The least used growth strategy by companies around the world, not just British companies, is to develop new export markets,” Mr Broadley explained.
He says that when EIC first conducted the research that found this and presented it to those in government the response was “that can’t be right”. However, subsequent studies have reinforced these findings.
“It’s now in its eighth year and it’s been the same every year,” he continued, “Other strategies are more popular, they’re easier to apply in business terms from the point of view of supply chain business leaders.”
This is something Mr Broadley’s team looks to correct at this year’s event in Aberdeen. He wants to showcase to the UK supply chain the plethora of opportunities international work can provide.
Mr Broadley said: “We as EIC, we’ve been around for 81 years now and our whole purpose is, and continues to be, to help companies to export.”
The EIC boss was quick to point out that “the UK is only 2% of the world’s energy market”, highlighting how UK suppliers are cutting their opportunities by not taking a wider look at the work on offer around the globe.
Mr Broadley continued: “There’s quite a lot happening in the UK right now but at the end of the day its 2%, that’s it, and that’s including oil and gas, renewables and nuclear and hydrogen and carbon capture. Add it all together and that’s all it is.”
Bringing 20 overseas delegations and “all the world’s main contractors,” to Aberdeen the Energy Exports Conference has set out its stall for why the supply chain should be in attendance.
EIC says ‘it’s a booming market’
Financial uncertainty is currently plaguing the UK as firms strike out at the country’s controversial energy profits levy, or windfall tax.
Trade body Offshore Energies UK found that 90% of oil and gas operators in the country have slashed spending since the policy came into play. Some of the country’s heavy hitters are even looking overseas to diversify portfolios.
However, up until now 90% of firms surveyed in this year’s eighth Survive and Thrive report have said that last year was a record year and “this year will be bigger again,” the EIC boss explained.
As the UK looks to a general election Stuart Broadley urges the supply chain to “be less party political” with energy policy.
He said: “If you speak to companies in the supply chain, they don’t want constant changing unstable political environments where the energy policy is affected.
“The first thing companies want is consistency and stability of the political environment, most importantly, then a constant and stable energy policy. That then means investment is more likely to come.”
Mr Broadley said you can “feel this in your gut, it’s a booming market and yet many companies are like ‘I’m just going to wait a bit before I make the next big investment step.”
