Global industry professionals from offshore marine and workboat industries will discuss major issues and challenges faced by the industry at the upcoming Seatrade Offshore Marine and Workboats 2019 summit in Dubai, UAE.

A leading conference and trade show, Seatrade Offshore Marine and Workboats 2019 will be held  from September 23 to 24 under the patronage of Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.

The Middle East region’s offshore market continues to demonstrate an upward trajectory, which makes it the most robust marketplace from a demand perspective-widely attributed to the significant investment plans of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, said the organisers.

Gregory Brown, the associate director for offshore, Maritime Strategies International, a maritime forecasting and strategic advisory firm, expressed confidence in the upturn despite the market being structurally challenged.

According to Brown, the offshore vessel market is in the early stages of recovery as witnessed by the presence of increased activity and the growing demand for high specification vessels.

Coming off from a market downturn that was experienced in the last five years, the market is now witnessing a key upturn--marked by the entry of new contract awards and increased utilization and pricing rates.

Brown said: “We are currently on the way to recovering from this five-year downturn, the strongest one felt since the mid-80s. Despite being seen as a slow recovery, we can see that there are robust pockets of activity--opportunities that can help us drive in more growth to the industry.”

Industry experts have pointed out that the recovery will be seen in a number of phases. A large part of the recovery will be brought in by an increase in the number of collaboration and consolidation activities from market players, which will leave a strong positive impact on the offshore market.

Brown continued: “The biggest challenge for the offshore market will be finding its role within the global energy mix. In fact, we have yet to see final investment decisions because the market went through a structural cost issue.”

“To address this, we need to effect real structural change and real structural rethinking of how these reserves are developed because they always have to look at them in the context of what the alternative investment is. We won't get that big inflection overnight as fellow industry professionals have said that we will go through a number of phases before we experience full recovery,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service