What OTC 2026 Revealed About the Future of Offshore Operations

A conversation with Eli Feiglin, Chief Commercial Officer at Agwa

OTC has always been one of the most important meeting points for the offshore industry. But walking the floor in Houston this year, one thing felt increasingly clear: the conversation is changing. Alongside the traditional focus on infrastructure, performance, and energy production, there is growing attention around operational resilience, automation, workforce retention, and the overall experience of life offshore.

We spoke with Eli Feiglin, Chief Commercial Officer at Agwa, following his visit to OTC 2026 about the trends he observed, the conversations happening across the exhibition floor, and why crew wellbeing is becoming a more strategic topic than ever before.

OTC has always been associated with offshore energy and heavy industry. What stood out to you this year?

What impressed me most was how broad the conversation has become. Historically, OTC was very engineering focused in a narrow sense: drilling systems, subsea equipment, infrastructure, machinery. All of that is still there of course, but now the discussion is much wider. You hear constant conversations around automation, AI driven operations, remote management, operational continuity, workforce challenges, and long term offshore resilience. There is a growing understanding that offshore performance is not only about equipment anymore. It is also about the people operating in these environments for extended periods of time. That shift was visible everywhere.

Did you feel that companies are becoming more open to conversations around crew wellbeing?

Absolutely. And not in a symbolic way. What was interesting at OTC is that many of the conversations around crew wellbeing were actually framed as operational conversations. Companies understand today that attracting and retaining experienced offshore personnel is becoming more difficult. The industry is dealing with workforce pressure, competition for skilled people, and changing expectations around quality of life.

In that context, the onboard experience becomes strategically important.

People are starting to recognise that daily life offshore directly affects morale, retention, performance, and long term operational stability. Food is part of that conversation in a very immediate way because crews experience it every single day.

What kinds of reactions did Agwa receive at the exhibition?

The reactions were very strong because the concept itself was immediately understandable.

Most people did not need a long explanation to understand why fresh food offshore matters. They already knew. Many of them had firsthand offshore experience themselves or had spent years working closely with offshore crews.

What became more interesting was the second part of the conversation: execution.

A lot of people told us they had seen small scale growing systems before. Some had seen experimental hydroponic solutions years ago. But nearly all of those systems failed for the same reason: they created extra work for the crew while delivering inconsistent results.

Once people understood that Agwa operates as a fully autonomous plug and play system with minimal crew involvement, the conversation changed very quickly. The response became much more serious because suddenly this was not an idea anymore. It became operationally realistic.

OTC is increasingly discussing automation and AI. Did that connect naturally to Agwa?

Very much so. One of the strongest themes across the exhibition was autonomous operations. Everyone is looking at ways to reduce operational friction, simplify workflows, and improve reliability in remote environments.

That mindset aligns very naturally with what we do.

Agwa is not simply a food system. It is an autonomous onboard infrastructure system designed for harsh operational environments. The fact that the system manages lighting, irrigation, nutrition, and growth cycles automatically is extremely important in offshore settings because crews already operate under significant workload and operational pressure.

People at OTC immediately understood why automation matters in this context.

Was sustainability still a central topic this year?

Yes, but the tone has matured. A few years ago, sustainability discussions often felt disconnected from day to day operations. At OTC 2026, the conversations felt much more practical and integrated into real operational thinking. Companies are increasingly looking at sustainability through the lens of efficiency, resilience, provisioning logistics, waste reduction, and workforce quality of life.

That is important because fresh food onboard touches several of those areas simultaneously. Reducing provisioning waste, lowering dependency on long refrigerated supply chains, improving onboard wellbeing, and strengthening operational continuity are no longer viewed as separate discussions. Increasingly, companies are treating them as connected parts of the same operational strategy.

Did you notice any broader shift in the offshore industry itself?

I think the industry is becoming more human focused while still remaining highly technical. That may sound contradictory, but it is actually happening at the same time.

The offshore sector continues pushing toward more advanced engineering, more automation, and more sophisticated infrastructure. But alongside that, there is growing recognition that offshore crews remain central to everything.

You can build the most advanced offshore systems in the world, but ultimately people still need to live and work in these environments for long periods of time.

The companies thinking seriously about that reality are increasingly the ones leading the industry forward.

What do you think companies are prioritising today that maybe they were not prioritising five or ten years ago?

Long term operational sustainability. Not sustainability only in the environmental sense, but sustainability of the workforce itself.

There is greater awareness today that offshore operations depend on maintaining experienced, motivated, high quality crews over time. That changes how companies think about onboard living standards, food quality, mental wellbeing, and the overall crew experience. These topics were once viewed as secondary welfare initiatives. Increasingly, they are being treated as core operational investments.

That is a major shift.

After attending OTC 2026, where do you think this industry is heading?

I believe offshore operations are moving toward a future that is more automated, more connected, and more focused on long duration operational resilience.

The industry is clearly investing heavily in advanced infrastructure and autonomous systems, but there is also growing recognition that human performance offshore remains critical. The companies that will stand out over the next decade will not only be the ones with the most advanced technology. They will also be the ones that understand how to create sustainable long term offshore environments for the people operating those systems every day. That broader shift was visible throughout OTC 2026.