What the EIC Survive & Thrive Report tells us about Offshore Energy in 2026

Every year, the Energy Industries Council (EIC) publishes the Survive & Thrive Report, a study tracking how energy supply chain companies survive and grow in a volatile market. The 10th edition draws on interviews and case studies from 136 companies worldwide. The picture it paints maps closely onto the sectors and feature areas at SPE Offshore Europe – Europe’s integrated offshore energy event. 

Here is what the report says about the current state of offshore energy and why it matters for anyone planning to visit Offshore Europe in 2027. 

Three takeaways:

• AI adoption is now near-universal, making our Digital Zone all the more important. 

• Oil and gas still funds the business, while diversification into wind, hydrogen, CCUS and decommissioning spreads risk. 

• Companies are backing a pragmatic transition, not an either/or switch. 

The headline statistic is hard to ignore. As the report's executive summary notes, "nearly 90% of companies reported using AI internally, and 44% are using it externally as a service." A further 42% created new capabilities to put AI to work. Digital and AI case studies almost doubled year on year, rising from 9% to 17%. 

The proof is in the projects. Bureau Veritas used tech-augmented inspection to deliver work 25% faster, cut hazardous site visits by up to 40% and reduce defect resolution times by 30%. Hausthene cut the engineering time to homologate a polymer component by 66%. KOIL Energy now generates project data books in minutes rather than two weeks. 

This is exactly the ground covered in Offshore Europe's Innovative Technology and Digital Zone, where predictive maintenance, digital twins, robotics and remote operations are part of the proposed content. The North Sea Futures theatre picks up the same threads, from AI to digitalisation. 

In short: AI has moved from experiment to everyday tool. The Digital Zone is where you compare what actually works. 

Oil and gas remains the foundation. The report found 94% of companies active in the sector, accounting for 60% of reported revenue on average. Margins reflect that maturity. As one KROHNE Group finding put it, oil and gas projects deliver 25% margins compared to 10% in wastewater. 

Companies are protecting that base while sharpening efficiency. Dräger's wireless fire and gas system on Chevron's Tamar platform avoided a projected nine-month shutdown, delivering close to US$140m in client savings. A single engineer installed 63 gas detectors in six days. 

The upstream supply chain, from wells and subsea to integrity and life extension, is the core of the Offshore Europe show floor. It is where operators meet the service companies and OEMs solving real asset problems. 

Offshore wind is expanding as a revenue line even as companies stay disciplined. Select Offshore now earns 50% of its income from offshore renewables. Safelift Offshore grew its renewables share from 20% to 40% in a year. AIS drove revenue from £47.2m to £151m over four years with its NjordGuard subsea cable protection system, which keeps cables up to 10°C cooler and saves operators up to €7,200 per section. 

The report is candid about the headwinds too. It notes that offshore wind slowed sharply from 2024 across Europe, North America and Asia, and that floating offshore wind saw just 0.5% of projects reach final investment decision. Grid infrastructure is the bottleneck. One client with a £2bn generation budget was investing £9bn in grid upgrades. 

The Offshore Wind Hub and theatre address these delivery realities head on, covering installation, marine operations and lifecycle O&M performance. 

The report's transition message is grounded. Its advice to companies is clear: "Support the energy transition but be pragmatic about oil and gas." That balance runs through the data. The share of companies active in renewables fell to 48% from 59% last year, yet the average renewable share of revenue rose from 10% to 13%. 

The main barrier is that not enough cleantech work reaches the supply chain, driven by low final investment decision rates. Fibron shows what progress looks like in practice, installing 1,428 solar panels for around £100,000 in annual savings and doubling its recycling rate. 

This "transition in practice" theme will play a key part across the Offshore Europe event, including at the Energy Theatre programme, where operators and technology providers share decarbonisation and electrification work rooted in real projects. 

Both sectors feature strongly in this year’s report. OMB Valves risked a €3m investment in a liquid hydrogen testing facility with no signed contract, then secured €9m in hydrogen valve revenue. LRQA's hydrogen business grew 40% year on year. Øglænd System supported Northern Lights, the world's first cross-border CO2 transport and storage facility, lifting new energy projects from zero in 2023 to 25 in 2025. 

Levidian shipped its first tonne-scale graphene volume to the Middle East, converting methane into graphene and hydrogen. These are the capture-to-storage and production-to-infrastructure challenges explored in our Hydrogen Hub and across our CCUS conference programme content. 

Decommissioning stands out as a durable opportunity. THREE60 Energy secured a record £400m decommissioning contract in 2025 and built a £650m backlog worth roughly 3.5 years of work. Kent describes a non-cyclical wave of demand as ageing North Sea infrastructure reaches end of life. 

Offshore Europe covers plug and abandonment, removal and environmental management through the North Sea Futures theatre and specialist suppliers on the show floor. 

The report confirms what the show floor already reflects. The most resilient companies work across sectors, backing oil and gas revenue while building capability in wind, hydrogen, CCUS, decommissioning and digital. 

Offshore Europe brings these sectors together in one place: the exhibition floor, the Digital Zone, the Energy Theatre and Offshore Wind hubs and the SPE conference programme. If your job involves offshore delivery, it is where you compare proven approaches and have better-informed supplier conversations. 

The next edition runs 7-9 September 2027 at P&J Live, Aberdeen. Register your interest in attending Offshore Europe 2027. 

The Survive & Thrive Report is published by the Energy Industries Council (EIC).