Oceans of Opportunity to be explored at Subsea Expo 2021

How the UK’s underwater industry can capitalise on $3 trillion Blue Economy

The theme for Subsea Expo in 2021 will be Oceans of Opportunity – harnessing the Blue Economy.

The exhibition and conference will explore how the UK’s underwater engineering industry can capitalise on the global blue economy, estimated to be worth $3 trillion by 2030.

Organised by industry body, Subsea UK, the three-day event will take place at Aberdeen’s P&J Live from 23-25 February 2021.

Europe’s largest exhibition and conference focused on the underwater industry is set to be one of the first post-pandemic, large scale physical, as opposed to virtual, events back on the international calendar.

Neil Gordon, chief executive of Subsea UK, said: “The underwater engineering industry currently generates annual revenues of £7.8billion and a large slice of that still comes from the oil and gas sector. However, as the industry extends its reach into offshore wind, defence, ocean and marine science and aquaculture, there is the opportunity to grow global marketshare of what’s now known as the blue economy or ocean economy.

“Forecast to be worth around $3 trillion in the next ten years, the blue economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth. Oil and gas, offshore and marine renewables and aquaculture account for around a third of its value.

“This is good news for the subsea industry whose underwater engineering capabilities, honed in North Sea oil and gas and increasingly in demand in offshore wind, are eminently transferrable to defence, ocean science, aquaculture and deep sea mining.”

With leading figures from all these sectors presenting at Subsea Expo 2021, the event is an ideal platform for companies to glean market intelligence, identify new opportunities and ways of exploiting these.

Approaching its 16th year, the event attracts around 200 exhibitors and almost 7,000 delegates from around the world. Over a third of the floor space has already been booked for Subsea Expo 2021.

Mr Gordon added: “Interest in next year’s event is on the increase and it’s clear there is an appetite for a return to real, rather than virtual, events. Our industry’s main sector – oil and gas – has taken a double blow with coronavirus and the collapse in commodity price but, with the race to achieve net-zero, a green recovery on the horizon, including hydrogen and CCUS, coupled with oceans of opportunity in the blue economy, we are sensing renewed optimism. This augers well for 2021 and we anticipate a more buoyant mood at next year’s Subsea Expo.”

The deadline for submitting abstracts to present at Subsea Expo is 9th October. Entries for the Subsea UK Awards will also be accepted up to this date. Details about the award categories, booking exhibition space and sponsorship opportunities are available on the Subsea Expo website: https://www.subseaexpo.com/

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.