From 2013 to 2017 Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast total ROV operations expenditure of approximately $9.7 billion (bn), an increase of nearly 80% over the previous five-year period ($5.4bn) in this sixth edition of the World ROV Operations Market Forecast. Author, Kathryn Symes, commented, “Drilling support accounts for three-quarters of expenditure between 2013 and 2017, and is expected to increase over the period by 13%. DW forecast almost 527,000 days of ROV drilling support in the next five years, of which the majority is made up of work on exploration & appraisal wells.