Growth of the Requirement "There is no more easy oil!" This statement above all others symbolises the changes of emphasis in therecovery of oil and gas reserves in all parts of the world. With exceptionpossibly of the CIS and the former Soviet Republics, it is unlikely thatdiscoveries of reserves even approaching the size of the smaller North Seafields will be discovered in areas that allow exploitation by the technologiesof the 1980's. The discovery of marginal reserves in the North Sea has led to theinvestigation of various new approaches to their exploitation such as Sub-seaseparation, multiphase pumping, Sub-sea wellheads, production facilities andFloating Production vessels to name but a few. This increase in the use ofsub-sea facilities has been allied to a dramatic improvement in the reliabilityof electrical equipment in general and sub-sea connectors in particular. The development of a new family of connectors to satisfy this changingmarket has taken place over the last few years and has now reached a stagewhere a number of independent solutions are available in the marketplace. Thesetake widely differing approaches to the problem all having their own perceivedadvantages and disadvantages. Discussions over these could be the subject of aseparate paper! Other factors influencing the growth of the requirement are:The move to deeper waters - This imposes an obvious restriction on theuse of Divers and makes remote handling an essential factor in the viability ofa reserve, not just an option.Diving Regulations - The tightening up of the parameters for divingoperations has had a significant impact on the cost effectiveness of their useand, more likely than not, these will become even more restrictive in thefuture. It is however possible to retain some of the advantages of a diver, without infringing these regulations, by the use of an Atmospheric DivingSystem as will be discussed later.Costs - In general it will be possible to make savings on installation costsby the use of remote installation techniques. Time on site can be greatlyreduced and the capital cost of the equipment utilised should be also reduced. Against this however must be set the possible increase in structure complexityto accommodate the ROV/Tooling package to be used.