
Fundamentals of Subsea Systems
19 March 2019
Venue: Subsea UK, 30 Abercrombie Court, Westhill, AB32 6FE
09:00 for 09:30 (close at approx 16:30)

Testimonials
"An excellent course – this was NEL’s first group to undergo the course and following its success and positive feedback from those that attended I would like to send a second group and also explore the possibility of the course being run at NEL’s main facilities based in East Kilbride."
Lynne Hunter, Group Manager, NEL
"Really informative and feel like I have taken a lot away from it in terms of knowledge and a general overview of the subsea industry”.
Jennifer Walker, Sales Engineer, OceanScan
"Trainer Alistair Birnie was first class very knowledgeable and also put a wee bit of humour into the session which was great and really broke the ice. Very good course with great info/detail and thoroughly enjoyable."
Gavin Booth, Business Development Manager, Underwater Engineering Services
"I thoroughly enjoyed this course and would recommend it to anyone who needs to get a basic understanding of subsea."
Fiona Butters, Flow Assurance Sales Manager, Emerson
"A very useful and interesting course covering a wide range of topics delivered in a very understandable and friendly manner with the opportunity to ask questions. It came highly recommended and I can understand why."
Dr Lindsay Wilson, Project Manager, the Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC)
The course
The origins of the subsea sector go back as far as 1940. However, until 1978, subsea systems were quite rudimentary and certainly not suited to the demands of current production systems, nor the environment. All that changed in 1978 through the introduction of what was considered at the time to be highly innovative game changing technology, which radically changed the way in which the industry thinks and operates.
Today we see projects exploiting valuable reserves in depths extending to some 3,000 metres in harsh and highly complex environments. These achievements are based on solid foundations set out some 45 years ago but in applications that were not thought possible until recently.
Modern subsea production systems are highly sophisticated and use advanced technologies, well beyond even those envisaged by anyone in the early days of subsea development. This use of advanced technologies and the mass of strategic knowledge that has been built up has accelerated the development of deepwater fields around the world, where the UK is a leading player with world class skills and knowledge, as well as products.
This short one-day course has been specially developed to provide a broad but in-depth overview of the sector, both from a UK perspective, and as a global sector and shares useful insights into the state of the art in subsea engineering & technology. It will cover aspects of how subsea fields are developed, and how subsea systems are designed, installed, operated and decommissioned.
If you would like to attend the Fundamentals course but are not able to travel to Aberdeen, please email events@subseauk.com with your preferred nearest city/venue and it may be possible to organise a course in your area.
The course leader

With almost 40 years post graduate experience in subsea and marine engineering, Alistair Birnie is a graduate of both University of Aberdeen and the Robert Gordon University and is also a chartered engineer. Having worked for diverse organisations including Aker Solutions, ITF, Schlumberger Subsea, Nautronix, NOV Varco, Fugro Subsea and Marconi Underwater Systems in development Alistair spent 3 years as CEO of Subsea UK before stepping down in 2011 to take the role of Professor of subsea engineering at the National University of Singapore. Having spent 6 years in academia teaching post graduate students at MSc. and PhD Level, Alistair is now Managing Director of Denmore Technologies Ltd and is a consultant working with subsea and defence growth businesses.