Record Subsea Expo

This year’s Subsea Expo was a record-breaking event with almost 9,000 recorded visits by 6,500 registered delegates over the three days.

Europe’s largest annual subsea exhibition and conference and Aberdeen’s second largest event after Offshore Europe, broke all records this year with a 23% increase in attendees and 200 exhibitors.

Commenting on the success of the event, Neil Gordon – chief executive of Subsea UK, the show’s organisers, said: “This year’s event has surpassed all expectations. We have attracted more delegates, more international visitors, more exhibitors, more speakers and more young people than ever before, underlining the importance of our sector to the UK and to the global oil and gas industry.

“The UK subsea market, worth almost £9 billion, has this week demonstrated its resilience, pioneering spirit and desire to work together to ensure that we have a strong future in the North Sea and our leading position in the global market is maintained. The innovation and technology on show at the exhibition underlined why our supply chain is envied around the world and the interest from overseas visitors emphasised our unparalleled expertise.”

DNV GL Oil & Gas exhibited at this year’s Subsea Expo and also participated in one of the conference sessions on standardisation of quality control across the industry.

Graeme Lamont, business development manager UK & Southern Africa, DNV GL Oil & Gas UK, said: “Subsea Expo has been a fantastic gathering to drive forward solutions for the long-term benefit of the industry. Standardisation across the subsea sector was a hot topic at the show and we believe it can be the lynchpin to create more efficient and cost-effective development processes, without sacrificing quality or safety. The industry can recover, and the event showed there’s a real determination to ride out the current crisis through cohesive innovation and collaboration.”
Innovation was a key theme at the event and was highlighted by a number of the exhibitors as a key driver in the future success of the industry.

Duncan Duthie, director of ATR Group’s UES division, said: “Innovative technology has really been at the heart of this year’s Subsea Expo. We have relished the opportunity to exhibit and engage with the industry at such a challenging time. In hard times when our sector gets more competitive, events like this one are a brilliant opportunity for companies like us to showcase the variety of services we offer and the quality of delivery we give to our clients, which keeps us ahead of our competitors.”

Steve Ham, general manager of The Underwater Centre, said: “It’s been a very busy and productive Expo for us this year. The focus on practical and economical solutions to proving new technology continues to grow; in addition companies are increasingly recognising the value of training to running efficient organisations. So we’ve been having many productive conversations. One theme coming out is the willingness of companies to collaborate to produce an effective service, and that is a theme that will become even more important for us as companies pursue cost-effective solutions.”
Another theme was resilience as exhibitors and attendees looked at tackling the challenges facing the oil and gas industry.

Alasdair Cowie, managing director, Cortez Subsea, said: “Some very frank and honest discussions have taken place over the past few days that we think reflect how committed the subsea sector is to tackling the challenges facing the north sea oil and gas industry. It has been particularly good to see such a strong focus on building better working relationships between companies, collaborations are where we see a lot of opportunity and Subsea Expo has provided a good platform for that.”

David Kerr, managing director of Harkand, said: “Subsea Expo has been a great opportunity to showcase not only the work we do to accommodate the challenges facing the North Sea sector, but also how the expertise honed here is benefiting our work internationally. The atmosphere this year despite the downturn was extremely positive, and the consistent message throughout the show was that the subsea industry recognises the need for efficiencies to ensure we are always delivering added value to our customers, and striving forward with new technology, services and equipment fundamental to that objective.”

Michael Gaskin, commercial director, Maritime Developments Limited, said: “I have worked in the industry for more than twenty years and this year’s Subsea Expo has been the best event I have ever been to. It is an excellent show and the people you are talking to and taking enquiries from have real budgets. Day two of Subsea Expo was, for me, the busiest day I have ever had at an exhibition.”

Subsea Tooling Services UK Ltd attended Subsea Expo for the first time this year. Business development manager, Danny Milne, said: “Subsea Expo has given us a platform to access the people we want to be talking to. We have had lots of companies approaching us to buy our equipment and have had lots of orders placed at the show. As a company starting out and launching new innovative products Subsea Expo is the best show we could have attended.”

Jenny Wells, ISR at Ansys, said: “Subsea Expo is a great, focused event with the right audience. It is the most successful offshore show we exhibit at and over the years has produced more revenue for us than any other show we exhibit at.”