SPE Offshore Europe

Portfolio Director, Energy and Marine, Jonathan Heastie outlines to Inside Oil & Gas what can be seen at the show.

SPE Offshore Euro

Looking ahead to SPE Offshore Europe, what do you see are the benefits to businesses of attending the show?

Running in Aberdeen on 5-8th September, SPE Offshore Europe is the energy industry’s platform for navigating towards a better energy future. One of the organisers, Portfolio Director, Energy and Marine, Jonathan Heastie, told Inside Oil & Gas what visitors can expect. Questions by Phil Nicholls.

It’s the wondrous power of being face to face. I’ve organised events for many, many years, so I’m always going to advocate being live in an environment with people who you can interact with.

Having gone through the Covid experience of the last few years, more and more people now understand the value of being at the right event, with the right colleagues from the industry.

Portfolio Director, Energy and Marine, Jonathan Heastie

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By coming to an event like SPE Offshore Europe, you can see technologies on the show floor, you can see what’s new. You can sit in the conference rooms or show floor theatres and learn from experts in the field. Visitors will bump into people that they never knew they wanted to meet. It’s these serendipitous connections, creating new energy in the industry, that are the value of face-to-face events.

How has SPE Offshore Europe evolved since the last show? We see it is the 50th anniversary – what is new for this year?

One of the things we’re doing to celebrate 50 years is looking back at the people, the technologies, the moments,

the organisations that helped to shape SPE Offshore Europe. The event is also considering how we think the next 50 years might go, so we are looking back to look forward.

The big difference from our last event in 2019 is the amount of energy transition content. This is not just in the

EVENT PREVIEW

Portfolio Director, Energy and Marine, Jonathan Heastie outlines to Inside Oil & Gas what can be seen at the show.

conference rooms upstairs, run by our partner SPE, but also on the exhibition floor, in every corner of every hall. There are new features, there are new learning hubs, all focused on the process of energy transition.

What visitor and exhibitor numbers are you targeting for this year?

We’re trying to get back to where we were in 2019, when we had just over 38,000 atten dees over the four days of the show. There were around 850 exhibitors from about 120 countries.

What can visitors expect from their trip to SPE Offshore Europe?

There are four main areas that we’re focusing on in the event. Energy Security probably is the main one, but that also takes in some of the newer technologies and energy sources that we will need to blend into the portfolio. These solutions have a more sustainable side to them, which connects to our second focus of Energy Transition.

Innovative Technology underpins both of these themes, which is our third focus. Finally, there is a focus on the Future Talent needed for the industry to successfully deliver these first three themes.

Looking at the companies already booked for SPE Offshore Europe can you share any previews about the innovations and developments on display this year?

5-8 September 2023

Live, Aberdeen, UK

We’re still learning about what our exhibitors intend to showcase and perhaps launch at this year’s OE. We’ve got a full season to go before the doors open, and most exhibitors are still planning their show activities in private at present. I’d suggest readers keep tabs on the exhibitor list pages on our show website, as exhibitors should be uploading more information as we approach the event in September. There will also be a lot of new exhibitors joining over the coming months, especially those from our international pavilions.

Are there any other special aspects of SPE Offshore Europe that you would like to include in this feature? Please can you tell me more about the Energy Transition Theatre and the Energy Transition Zone.

One of the new features on the floor for this year is the Energy Transition Zone of exhibitors. This has about 900 square metres of space, the first time we've ever had an area dedicated to energy transition. This Zone is already largely full and, at the heart of the Zone, is the Energy Transition Theatre focused on offshore wind. There are about 100 seats in the theatre, where operators and supply chain partners who are diversifying their portfolio will come to share some of their plans about how wind will play a part in the transition.

EVENT PREVIEW

Please can you tell me more about your conference programme – who do you have lined up to speak and what topics are high on the agenda?

We have four committees working on the programme for SPE Offshore Europe, run by our partner SPE. Our show website has the latest iteration of the conference programme for readers to review. The specialists on our committees are shaping the theme and programme content for the conference, ensuring it is relevant and fit for the industry’s needs and requirements.

What do you consider to be the main industry challenges for the Oil & Gas sector for the future? How far do events such as SPE Offshore Europe go in helping companies overcome such difficulties?

Events like SPE Offshore Europe convene people, we bring people together.

Attending will be technology experts, operators, supply chain companies, industry representatives from associations and governments. We bring those people together and give them a platform to discuss challenges and harness opportunities.

But I think security of energy supply will be the biggest challenge, with transition a key opportunity as part of that. It’s a changing energy landscape in the world, but particularly for the UK and northern Europe. So, it’s really good to have an event like SPE Offshore Europe that can bring everybody together, face to face, to talk about these challenges and opportunities.

Portfolio Director, Energy and Marine, Jonathan Heastie outlines to Inside Oil & Gas what can be seen at the show.

-8 September 2023

Live, Aberdeen, UK

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On a personal level, what aspect of SPE Offshore Europe are you most excited about?

The part that I am longing for is simply being able to open the doors on the show. We will bring everybody back together to meet and do business, to learn, to educate, to drive things forward in the industry.

If we can play a small role, giving a platform to people who will both secure our supply and also develop the sustainable energy supply chain to help decarbonise the industry and meet the necessary global targets, then that's brilliant!

Is there anything not covered by the above questions that you would like to share with our readers?

I would encourage everyone to attend the event. After the enforced break, it is more important than

ever to be at SPE Offshore Europe. There will be so many important meetings at the event, so much learning, so many companies, new technologies, new approaches, new partnerships, new business models and new ways of financing.

There will be important discussions in every corner of the venue. So, it would be a real shame for people not to be there in some way or another. However attendees interact at SPE Offshore Europe, it is vital that they participate, because there’s so much value to be found at the event during such an important time for us all. n