Subsea Expo 2015: Guest editor Neil Gordon breaks down the subsea industry’s current climate
The UK still boasts the single largest concentration of subsea capability and excellence in the world. Our challenge is to maintain that position in the face of the current drop in oil price and increasing global competition. This means we need to get better and quicker at developing new innovation and technology – which is a key theme at Subsea Expo this week. The first half of 2014 saw our sector continue the upward curve we have enjoyed in recent years with most companies reporting strong order books. The growth wasn’t confined simply to the UK; our industry enjoyed expansion internationally with exports growing to almost 50% of our total revenues. However, during the summer of 2014 we started to see a cooling off period that has been compounded by the drop in oil price. We have also seen the dynamics changing in other parts of the global subsea market. Australia has perhaps peaked slightly and we have seen it cool off as it begins to move from a CAPEX intensive region into a more OPEX focussed operational area. We are starting to see a drying up of projects in Africa but Mexico’s energy reform last year will have a significant impact on companies in the Gulf of Mexico as its deepwater market begins to open up.
