MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands oil industry teams up with Scotland's oil service business sector

The second Falklink event took place in Aberdeen and was supported by Scottish Enterprise (Pic. File)

A successful and well attended conference took place at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre on the 4th December 2013 to open up business links between the Falkland Islands and Scotland’s oil service business sector. This event was the second of the two planned events from the project known as FalkLink.

 The first event, a seminar for FI businesses took place at the Falkland Islands Chamber of Commerce on 31st October 2013 and was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce in Stanley and Falkland Islands Government. This second event was supported by Scottish Enterprise, the Falkland Islands Development Corporation and the private sector.

Likely increased offshore exploration, development drilling, offshore construction and oil production activities are all in now the planning stages and more local support will be required in the Falkland Islands.

 - The FalkLink project’s purpose is to assist businesses of all shapes, sizes and sectors in the Falkland Islands, together with public agencies, to:

Maximize the local business opportunity of an emerging oil and gas producing province;

Identify the business development, training and skills requirements;

Discover any emerging and outstanding needs and business sector capacity;

Help make constructive partnership connections in the UK to satisfy those needs, particularly in the North of Scotland.

The Aberdeen conference hosted around sixty delegates from the oil service and supply sectors, which were keen to understand the business opportunities.

There was a one to one network session in the afternoon, after the morning’s plenary. The outcome was a multitude of possible business partnerships between businesses in the FI and NE Scotland to help develop a properly competent and HSEQ aware oil industry service sector.

Gerry Love of Scottish Development International said “The potential in the Falkland Islands for the oil & gas supply-chain are just beginning to emerge. The initial Falklink report shows there are clearly great opportunities in this emerging market for Scottish companies and bringing them together at events like this is an excellent way to forge relationships and encourage greater collaboration.”