Overseas sales by Scottish oil and gas industry supply-chain firms have risen more than 280% in 10 years, a major conference on the sector will be told today.
International sales from the sector, clustered mostly in the north-east, rose from an estimated £1.9billion in 2000 to more than £7.2billion in 2009, according to research by the Scottish Council for Trade and Industry (SCDI).
While the latest international figures, due out in coming months, are expected to show further growth in recent years, it is not thought to be as strong as in the past.
Ian Armstrong, SCDI regional director, who will be presenting a paper at the Oil and Gas and Scotland’s Future conference in Edinburgh, will also highlight the scale and longevity of the industry in Scotland.
“The main thing we want people to take away is the understanding there is a very large industry here and it is going to be around for another 40 years at least, investing in the North Sea and generating several billion pounds annually in international revenue out of a Scottish base largely in and around Aberdeen,” he said last night.
The conference will hear from a host of industry leaders, including the North Sea bosses of BP and Total: Trevor Garlick and Philippe Guys. A pre-conference dinner last night heard from the UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry.
Mr Armstrong said yesterday the growth figures from 2000-09 highlighted how global the UK sector had become. He added: “We are still counting the numbers from the latest survey. We had anticipated a flattening of growth over the last couple of years because of the global economic situation but the feeling is there will have been some modest growth but not at the rate we have seen.”
Geographically, west Africa – with Nigeria and Angola – had seen a lot of growth in the past 10 years and were still important for overseas sales.
The main market, however, was still the US and Canada, although Mr Armstrong said that in addition to west Africa, areas including Australia were becoming more important.
In total, Scottish supply firms worked in some 107 countries, he said.
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