Don Underwood, general manager for emerging technologies at the subsea contractor, said during a Monday breakfast at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston that commercial innovation could help drive uptake in the subsea technology.

"Commercial innovation is just as important in this space as technological innovation," Underwood said.

Reducing up-front capital expenditures and reducing overall risk is only part of it. It might be worth considering a "commercial solution where we talk about risk-sharing modules.