With over 7,500 platforms planned by 2010, over 22,000 sub sea wellheads and 225 floating production facilities and the inspections needed to make sure they operate - the ROV market (and, subsequently the AUV - Autonomous Underwater Vehicles - market as well) is certainly looking healthy.

Now Westwood predicts that the industry will expand to a US$725 million business by 2008, and that is only counting the impact of the hardware, which makes up just part of the equation. Halliburton Subsea employs a large cadre of salaried ROV personnel on its books to maintain its large fleet of offshore ROVs.

Currently the oil and gas industry is moving toward the deepwater markets in a search for fresh fields. Equally, the telecoms sector is becoming ever more demanding in its requirements for the protection of submarine cable assets in very deep water.

The only form of intervention on the seafloor in these businesses is with robotic technology, making these technologies more important to the industry in the future.

In a market as specialised as this, it would seem that adaptability to customer needs is paramount. Dick Martin, Subsea 7's vice president (Gulf of Mexico) believes his company is well positioned to take a leading role in the industry's growth.

"We have one of the largest ROV fleets in the world - 117 vehicles, working down to 16,400 ft [and we have] the ability to design and build [our] own ROVs. We see this as a differentiator, as we are one of the few that can take operational experience and feed it directly back into the design and build of these critical components in our execution process," said Martin.

"The essential elements for successful ROV operations have always been, and will always be, reliability and skilled crews. We have both of these and I think that's what sets us apart from our competitors," added Martin.