Any effect of an industry downturn was certainly not felt at the latest Offshore Northern Sea (ONS) conference this year in Stavanger, Norway. The four-day event attracted the second largest attendance ever at the conference, almost 66,000 industry experts. Amongst the dozens of keynote speakers taking to the stage was Wood Mackenzie’s Principal Analyst, Malcolm Dickson.

Malcolm used the speaking slot to reveal his statistical findings around his research on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS), including how oil prices had damaged investment in the region and how supply and demand for exploration projects had changed. However, in his presentation, Malcolm also pointed towards the positive collaborative work being done to ‘optimise’ and reduce costs in order to get the industry moving again.

The deteriorating condition of over-worked and ageing assets in the Middle East is a reality. Figures at the start of 2016 suggest that in the next decade, 800 fixed platforms in the Middle East will surpass their asset life – 75% of these assets are already 25 years old or over.

As well as ageing factors, the region, particularly the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, are also beginning to suffer the effects of technical and geological factors. Fields built pre-1970s, for example, are unlikely to include stainless steel due to the material not being commonplace during initial creation. This, of course, has led to severe corrosion problems, meaning mitigation strategies have had to be implemented to maintain integrity – something we’ve previously covered on the Claxton Engineering Insights Blog.