New Wave Media

 

“We are absolutely thrilled with how OI2016 has gone,” said Event Director Jonathan Heastie of Reed Exhibitions. “With many of our participants active in the oil and gas industry, it’s fair to say that their expectations were lowered pre-show in light of the market challenges faced… but the feedback we received from our exhibitors all week was tremendous. They told us consistently that the quality of the visitors they met has risen sharply, with key decision-makers and senior technologists on-site from a multitude of industries, not just oil and gas and, most importantly, that these important attendees are looking to buy both now and into the future with numerous orders taken during the show.”

 

Heastie said that typical of the feedback received was a comment from John Pepper of OceanWise: “As first time exhibitors at OI, we had a good show, with interest shown in our products and services from organizations in the U.K. and overseas seeking to gain efficiency savings in the way they monitor and manage data and operational workflows. We look forward to signing up at least three overseas distributors as a result of being at the show.”

 

The 11 vessels, varying in length from 12.5 to 53 meters, moored outside the OI2016 exhibition halls in the Royal Victoria dock, had a busy time with 1,107 people going aboard for one of the 93 trips in the five giving demonstrations; and 847 visiting the vessels moored alongside as reception and exhibition bases. 142 people attended the dock side demos in the specially sited portacabin from which the demonstrations and all underwater activity could be viewed. 
 

Conference streams over the three days dealt with Aquaculture; Green shipping (looking primarily at invasive species); Handling big data; Hydrography, Geophysics and Geotechnics; Marine renewables; Marine technology and services sector role in the Blue Economy; Monitoring structural integrity understanding risk and reliability; Oil & Gas: What’s next for ageing offshore assets?; Positioning & metrology; and the Unmanned vehicles and vessels showcase.

Additionally the Trade & Innovation Theatre on the exhibition floor was home to Clusters, Collaboration and a common blue voice; the Oiltech: ‘Meet the Investor’ seminar; Open Ocean & Coastal Observation Workshop; Near and Far Market Trading: U.K., France, Scotland, U.S., Ireland, Canada, Australia; and the New Products Showcase.

 

OI2016 also served as a platform for a series of industry announcements, with several exhibitors announcing company news, including new products, projects and contracts.

 

“We ended the week on a nice note securing a new contract from Saab Seaeye for a Leopard buoyancy ROV pack 3,000-meter-rated which will be manufactured at the Rochdale facility using high performance low density TG26/3000 syntactic foam,” said David Clayton, Sales Director, Trelleborg  Applied Technologies.

 

Additionally, China’s Nanhal Rescue ordered two Teledyne Benthos deep-tow systems with QINSy software from QPS through reseller Geo-Marine Technology to be used in the search for MH370.

 

Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors BV has purchased a suite of Gemini 720is multibeam imaging sonar.

 

Fugro secured a hat-trick of offshore wind contracts – two in U.K. waters (Walney Extension, and Aberdeen’s European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre) and one in the Dutch sector of the North Sea (Hollandse Kust (zuid) wind farm zone).

 

Next Geosolutions was awarded a geophysical, UXO & geotechnical contract from Prysmian SLR for the MONITA project in the Adriatic Sea.

 

Subsea 7 and 3D at Depth announced the completion of several metrology projects using subsea LiDAR technology in new configurations to help increase overall efficiencies in offshore oil and gas applications.

 

Kongsberg Maritime Ltd, the U.K. division of Kongsberg Maritime, expanded its subsea Aberdeen-based rental pool, with the addition of its new MUNIN AUV.

 

ASV has completed the construction of four C-Worker 5 vehicles. 

 

Ocean Scientific International Ltd (OSIL) recently shipped a network of eight MetOcean buoys to the Middle East for use in environmental monitoring.

 

Ashtead Technology has become the first subsea services company to be accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Services (UKAS) for its calibration laboratory.

 

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is to form part of the new Centres of Excellence in Satellite Applications which is expected to aid economic growth in the Solent region.

 

The U.K. Marine Industries Alliance (MIA) has launched an industry Code of Conduct in respect of surface maritime autonomous systems (MASs).

 

The Society of Maritime Industries (SMI) has formed a seventh focus group for its maritime engineering membership which will be led by the maritime autonomous systems (MAS) Council.

BMT ARGOSS has been appointed by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd to deliver weather forecasting services to support its onshore and offshore operations in the Sakhalin region, off the east coast of Russia.

 

Industry awards were also presented at OI: Gwyn Griffiths, Founder of Autonomous Analytics, was presented with the OI Lifetime Achievement Award; Paul Ridout, Executive Chairman of Ocean Scientific International Limited was named the AMSI Council Business Person of the Year; the Alan Greig Memorial Prize for outstanding contribution to operational oceanography was awarded to Richard Burt of Chelsea Technologies Group; and, the SUT Oceanography Award for 2015 was presented to Professor Karen Heywood of the University of East Anglia.

 

“We are thrilled for our customers and delighted that the active core of the ocean technology community has continued to support and attend OI, keeping it as the focal point of the industry’s calendar globally,” Heastie said. “We now turn our focus towards replicating its success in both China in November (November 9-11, Shanghai) and at our new North American event in San Diego in February (February 14-16), before returning to ExCeL in March 2018 (March 13-15), when Interspill 2018 will be co-located alongside OI2018.”