Page 44: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2021)

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Neil Gordon

Subsea UK & the “Global Underwater Hub” (GUH) ed by Neil Gordon, Chief Executive at Subsea UK, the more recent emergence and promising future of ‘? oating the organization is embarking on a new adventure as wind’ that share many similarities to offshore oil and gas.

The Global Underwater Hub, a new organization with In motion for a few years, drawing on the resources of Sub-

Lalready nearly $18 million in funding. ‘The Hub’ aims sea UK and additional entities in Scotland and the UK, The to leverage the UK’s strong maritime heritage, as well as its Global Underwater Hub is aiming to harness all that the sub- underwater expertise that transcends offshore defense and re- sea industry has to offer and leverage it toward future oppor- search. Subsea UK has been around nearly 20 years, set up to tunities. “So the challenge was, a few years back, we looked champion the UK subsea industry. It was fortuitous timing, as at Subsea UK, which had done a great job up until then, but that $2.7B CapEx industry in oil and gas grew to more than the future was starting to look slightly different,” said Gordon. $12B by 2013. ‘Slightly different’ includes the impact of COVID. “Things

While Subsea UK was formed in 2003 to champion the UK are changing; we’ve been through a pandemic and lockdown, subsea industry, markets change and evolve, and so too has and the world looks kind of different as we come out of hiber-

Subsea UK. The opportunity now – and hence the creation of nation. (In addition to the emergence of offshore wind) there

The Global Underwater Hub – is to leverage all of this accrued are things like carbon capture and utilization and storage, hy- subsea expertise, much of it born in the traditional offshore oil drogen production, and many other opportunities.” and gas environment, and ? nd new ‘homes’ for it in alternate Cumulatively it is perhaps best described at taking a bigger and emerging offshore industries, from defense to aquaculture piece of the ‘blue economy’ which encompasses all aspects to the burgeoning offshore wind market, particularly with the to do with the ocean, driven by the recent Organization for need to chart, understand and build on the sea? oor, as well as Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report that

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Watch the inter- view with Gordon @ bit.ly/3kFupEF

Gordon & “GUH”

Photo courtesy Subsea UK 44 September/October 2021

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