Some years ago, one of the founders of Subsea1 was participating at an oil and gas conference in India.

In a conference room, a Norwegian tech company had just started to present their newest product. One of their first slides focused on a detailed drawing which highlighted the technical design features of their new product. The presenter assumed that everyone in the audience knew the basics and the purpose of the product.

Back in the audience, a short conversation took place between two directors operating in the maritime supply sector. “What does this product do?” the first one asked. “I don’t know”, was the answer.

Overhearing this short conversation, the then to-be Subsea1 partner thought “what if they could have done a search for this basic information using their cell phones?” “How many others in this room are lost from the presentation because they don’t have the basic technical knowledge?” “What if we could create a global solution for sharing this kind of basic product knowledge?”

An idea was born!

After the visit to India, the idea was first described and presented to Statoil. The feedback was positive, but Statoil would like to see other operators and contractors join in to support the creation of a pilot solution. We were then introduced to the Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, who helped us form a Joint Industry Project with the following team of developing partners:

• Statoil and Det Norske Oljeselskap, who believed in our vision and promoted the idea in order to get the other development partners onboard. Both companies also contributed with important funding.
• The Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, who strongly believed in our vision to share basic subsea knowledge on a global scale, and emphasized the importance of subsea knowledge as part of future education and recruitment. They also acted as coordinator of the Subsea1 development project.
• The Norwegian Centre of Expertice Subsea, who participated in the overall design of the portal in order to make it user friendly. Their experienced subsea engineers also participated in course design to ensure a pedagogical approach.
• Stavanger Offshore Technical College and the University College of Southeast Norway, who participated with guidance in the overall solution design, and provided resources in order to ensure a pedagogical approach and technical quality of the courses.
• Aker Solutions and FMC Technologies, who kindly supplied qualified content to the portal and shared basic knowledge about their subsea systems and products. as the first building blocks to the Subsea1 portal.
• BP, who provided a number of graphics and animations to share with users of Subsea1.
• Innovation Norway, who supported with funding, and also promoted the Subsea1 initiative in their global business network.

The final result was a Joint Industry Project delivered on time and according to budget, resulting in Subsea1 - The global online portal where basic information about subsea systems and products can be shared in order to prepare for the more advanced.