100 major subsea contracts worth £4.5billion have been awarded globally during the first four months of 2011.

The figure was revealed by a new service that gathers market information together in a database by Subsea UK.

The database also shows that there are more than 300 major ongoing or upcoming subsea projects globally.

Alistair Birnie Chief Executive at Subsea UK said: “This is the first time that all of this publicly-released information has been available through one source and will provide valuable key facts and figures for business development.”

It will include details of projects in UK as well as those in major centres of activity such as Norway, Brazil, West Africa and the Gulf of Mexico.

The information is available online to members of Subsea UK, the body that represents over 220 members of the UK subsea supply chain.