Speaker Line-Up Unveiled for Subsea Asia 09

09 June 2009

A top line-up of international speakers from across the subsea industry will bring their expertise to the table this month at Subsea UK's second annual South-east Asian event.

Subsea Asia builds on 2008's inaugural event with around 200 visitors expected to gather in Kuala Lumpur for the one day conference on June 11.

Trevor Lewis, director for Trade and Investment at the British High Commission, will open the event which runs in parallel with South-east Asia's biggest oil and gas event, Oil & Gas Asia (OGA), with speakers from around the world discussing the challenges of deepwater development in the fast-growing province.

The line-up includes Encik Rosli Hamzah, deepwater senior manager at state-owned oil firm Petronas, and Aidan McKay, vice president of production in south-east Asia with Hess Corporation, who will provide an overview of deepwater projects in the region.

Highlighting emerging technology, Mads Hjelmeland, of Framo Engineering, will lead talks on the advances in high boost multiphase technology; while Donald Faulds, of Perry Slingsby Systems (PSS), will address the safety and security of light well controls.

Speakers from First Subsea, NCS Survey and SapuraAcergy will also discuss subsea mooring, pipeline repair and recovery; cost efficiencies of lightweight, high specification AUVs and subsea capabilities respectively.

The conference will close with a presentation on annulus integrity management from Carl-Petter Halvorsen, business development director of flexlife Ltd. Delegates are later invited to attend a networking reception, sponsored by Proserv Offshore and hosted by Subsea UK.

Malaysia, along with most other Asia Pacific countries, has experienced tremendous growth in its subsea sector of the last decade and the region as a whole has huge potential for UK subsea companies in terms of developing business, skills and technology opportunities.

Subsea Asia aims to provide companies with a cost effective way of showcasing their UK skills, technology and expertise particularly in the areas of risers, pipelines, subsea hardware and well control.

Alistair Birnie, Subsea UK chief executive said: “I am delighted that we have secured such an exciting line-up which encompasses the spectrum of subsea technology and expertise within this major growth region.

“With offshore capital expenditure in the Asia Pacific region at an all time high, Indonesia, China and Malaysia continuing to invest in deepwater facilities and increased shallow water deployments in Vietnam, Cambodia and The Philippines, there is a real opportunity for UK companies to lead the way in terms of skills, technology and expertise.

“Subsea UK members reported significant levels of potential new business secured as a direct result of contacts made during the 2008 event and we are confident that this year's bigger and better event will yield even greater results.”

Last year over 60 companies from 12 countries attended Subsea Asia which is supported by Scottish Development International and UKTI.

An evening drinks reception, sponsored by SMD, will take place on June 10 at the Subsea UK hospitality suite to welcome delegates to this year's event which marks the start of the lead up to the major Subsea Asia 2010 conference and exhibition in Kuala Lumpur from June 9-11.