Future opportunities for Britain’s subsea companies were highlighted at an Aberdeen event yesterday.
Alistair Birnie, chief executive of industry body Subsea UK, told the biggest annual subsea oil and gas showcase in Europe that the next wave of project development had already arrived while firms were still busy dealing with the downturn.
He added: “If the forecasts are anywhere near accurate, we can expect the order of 10% growth in the global subsea market year on year for the next four to five years.
“And that doesn’t include a £5billion-plus subsea market in offshore wind hitting us within the next four-five years – and believe me that is heading our way and faster than you might think.”
Mr Birnie told delegates at Subsea 2010 that the latest subsea expansion could already be seen in the Brazilian market. He added: “The projection is that Petrobras will, within a year, be responsible for over 50% of the world’s subsea tree procurement.”
But Mr Birnie said there were rapidly-diverging needs between mature field developments and the major green field projects coming up.
He said: “So, which market is the one to pick? The UK continental shelf remains a very important market for us as it is both easiest to reach and is worth over £2billion per year. But managing mature infrastructure and getting returns on ever-smaller incremental developments cannot sustain highly expensive and risky technology leaps.
“On the other hand, the next generation of subsea projects is already demanding major leaps in technology.”
The UK subsea sector leads the way around the world, with 40,000 employees in 750 companies contributing £5billion annually to the economy.
The north-east has the biggest concentration of subsea firms in the UK.
Andrew Reid, Aberdeen-based managing director of energy consultancy Douglas-Westwood, told Subsea 2010 that subsea markets had suffered project delay and reductions in activity in 2009.
But he said the medium to long-term fundamentals were solid, with an increasing reliance on deepwater and subsea production. He added: “Shorter term, markets are showing positive signs and there are expectations of progress in orders through 2010.”
Aberdeen-based C-MAR Group announced it had creates 15 new jobs in its subsea engineering division. It said this reflected a growing subsea engineering order book due to the numbers of new-build rigs entering service worldwide.
Ultrasonic testing specialist Sonomatic has unveiled its first diver-free subsea inspection tool at Subsea 2010.
The firm, which has UK bases in Aberdeen and Warrington, says the tool can be deployed entirely by remotely operated vehicle.
The Subsea 2010 event continues at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre today.
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