Venue: Busan, Korea

This conference is dedicated to vessels for deep and ultra deepwater operations. Shallow water oil and gas production is in long term decline. Much of the undiscovered, economically recoverable oil and gas reserves are believed to lie in the deepwater ocean basins of the gulf of mexico, offshore West Africa, Brazil, Northern Europe, Western Australia and Southeast. There has been a significant boom in the entire deepwater exploration and drilling industry over the last few years. Studies indicate that deepwater fields now account for more than 25% of Operator investment in offshore facilities and this may increase to over 40% by the end of the decade.

The development of deepwater fields presents significant technical and commercial challenges. They are often in remote locations far from existing infrastructures and in inhospitable environments. The exploration and development of these fields needs a whole range of vessels (survey, drilling units, supply ships, anchor handling vessels, floating production units, etc) with greater durability, reliability, large storage and greater handling and lifting capabilities.