Work-Class Operations Expenditure to Grow by 80%

From 2013-2017 Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast total ROV operations expenditure of approximately $9.7 billion, an increase of nearly 80% over the previous five-year period ($5.4 billion) in this sixth edition of the World ROV Operations Market Forecast.

Author, Kathryn Symes, commented, “Drilling support accounts for three-quarters of expenditure between 2013-2017, and is expected to increase over the period by 13%. DW forecast almost 527,000 days of ROV drilling support in the next five years, of which the majority is made up of work on exploration and appraisal wells. Expenditure on construction support accounts for a fifth of ROV operations, with repair and maintenance accounting for the remaining.

“Africa is forecast to experience strong demand from subsea development (DV) wells, driven by the discovery of new deepwater provinces offshore East Africa, and will remain the largest region, followed by Latin America and then Asia. The Middle East has the lowest ROV spend, and along with Norway will see decline in spend. Latin America is set to show the strongest growth of all regions.”

Report editor, John Westwood, concluded, “As operators look to increase the profitability and efficiency of their subsea developments, there will be a surge of demand for exceptionally powerful work-class ROVs, able to perform the support work needed in an industry where new technologies and processes are vital.

“The move to ever deeper waters will drive demand for work-class ROVs and manufacturers will have to produce high specification models capable of performing at greater depths. Smaller manufacturers may find there are opportunities for them to move from the production of inspection class and light work-class ROVs into the market for heavy-duty work-class ROVs.”

douglas-westwood.com