The Norwegian offshore industry has given rise to some of the world’s leading maritime clusters. Now many of these are steering towards sustainability.
GCE Subsea has long been one of Norway’s most prominent industrial clusters in offshore technology, but is now heading full speed into new, fossil-free ocean industries. Taking full advantage of petroleum expertise and technology, the cluster members are establishing themselves in blue growth markets such as aquaculture and offshore renewable energy. To reflect the expansion from a traditional oil and gas cluster to encompass innovative ocean industries, the cluster has changed its name to GCE Ocean Technology.
“We have neither the capital nor the time to begin developing renewable industries from scratch. That’s why we need to use expertise from oil and gas to kickstart green industry,” says Owe Hagesæther, CEO of GCE Ocean Technology.
The cluster is an example of just how fast the transition from fossil to green can go. In the course of the past three years, the majority of member companies have become involved in renewable activities, in addition to oil and gas.
“In 2014, we were 120 companies working solely with the petroleum industry. Today, more than half of our companies are involved in either aquaculture or offshore renewable energy as well,” he says.
“Certain companies now have higher turnover from renewables than oil and gas.”
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