August 13, 2013 - Three-quarters of revenue in the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region from sales of products suitable for use in hazardous areas were from the oil and gas industry in 2012, according to a recent report entitled “Hazardous Area Equipment – EMEA – 2013” from IHS. “Despite the well-known fact that oil and gas is the most important industry for hazardous area equipment, the very high market share it held last year came as a surprise,” said John Morse, senior automation market analyst with IHS. “The 2009 edition of the report also concluded that oil & gas was the leading market for hazardous area equipment accounting for around half of revenues at that time. Therefor the new report suggests that there has been a significant increase in sales to this industry.”
In particular, the results cite the growing volume of legislation being applied to oil and gas installations as one of the main factors. “There is a steady flow of new legislation being introduced,” Morse said. More notably the legislation is being ever more strictly applied, particularly in the lower risk environments where the risk of explosions is minimal e.g. Zone-2.
“Disasters in oil and gas installations get reported by the global media in seconds and the consequences can be catastrophic for the companies involved,” Morse said. “The result is that site operators are minimizing exposure wherever possible. In situations where there is any risk of explosion, no matter how small, ensuring certificates proving compliance with the relevant hazardous area legislation are logged and readily accessible, just in case.” The attached figure presents the market revenue share of EMEA in hazardous area equipment by zone certification.
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