The worldwide rise in oil prices and new ownership of some of the assets in the North Sea have given grounds to a new trade mission for Dutch suppliers to the oil and gas industry.
For this reason, the NBCC, together with the EVD, the Agency for International Business and Cooperation, trade association IRO and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in London, has recently organised a business-to business trade mission to Aberdeen, the hart of the British oil and gas industry. The visit took place in September 2004.
The
Dutch group consisted of 24 companies providing safety, power
generation, trenches for pipelines, hydraulics, safety clothing,
temporary offshore staff, daily detailed weather forecasts and complete
workshops to name but a few.
The programme, devised and produced as they say, by the NBCC, consisted partly of classroom-style presentations by off-shore companies, main & sub-contractors and consultants and also by the pioneering screening service, First Point Assessment Ltd.
F-Pal as this organisation is already fondly referred to by its
progenitors, the oil companies and major contractors in Aberdeen, puts
each new would-be supplier through a pre-qualification procedure. This
means he is then on the database which is consulted by the major
purchasers of equipment and services and saves hours of form filling
each time he wants to qualify as someone's approved vendor.
Other collective meetings included renowned players in Aberdeen such as
Total, Shell Expro, AkerKvaerner,
AMEC, BP and Wood Group.
Interwoven with the joint activities the delegates had their individual programmes of appointments with Aberdeen companies which they hope to business with in future, in the North Sea or in other parts of the world. Crossing the town from Altens to Bucksburn and the Albert Quay to Dyce has also showed the Dutch the granite city at its very best.
The NBCC has been organising offshore trade missions to Aberdeen since the first oil exploration started in 1976. As a result it has built up a wealth of information and expertise to assist companies in The Netherlands not paralleled by any other Netherlands organisation in the UK.
