Rigtools eyes expansion

Danish entrepreneurs are taking on the rig tool market. Emma Gordon explains.

Rigtool’s bottomhole assembly wash tool. Images from Rigtools.

When Rigtools was set up five years ago, it was something of a hobby for two entrepreneurial Danes. Now, the pair are eyeing rapid year-on-year growth. Building on early commercial success has seen the firm’s drilling tools deployed globally.

Rigtools’ technical manager, Per Krogh, and managing director, Micki Bjerregaard, met on a rig in the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) where they saw the need for an improved bottomhole assembly (BHA) wash tool design.

Krogh says the firm, set up in 2010, provides tools designed to simplify increasingly complex drilling operations and, at the same time, enhance efficiency, maintain safety and improve environmental conditions for rig crews.

Rigtools’ product was the BHA wash tool, a metal ring with center-facing high-pressure water nozzles that is installed on top of the diverter or bell nipple, and cleans the drill string components while the assembly is pulled out of the hole. The process is remote-controlled and continuous, so no personnel are needed in the high-hazard red zone for manual cleaning.

Currently, the Randers-based business sells and rents a range of drilling equipment, including 10 products developed in-house, including its certified clamp for handling lifting subs.

Rigtools is also on the brink of signing a deal with a US-based company that will help the firm supply up to 50 of its shaker screen-cleaning units annually for international operations. The technology has been used on the NCS since 2012.

According to Krogh, the ventilated shaker screen-clean machine is fast, efficient and helps extend mesh life. Its use means rig crews do not have to manually pressure-clean the screens, thus reducing their exposure to mud and chemicals.

The demands of the business mean Krogh, who also works as a senior drilling supervisor, spends much of his onshore rotation and some of his time offshore running Rigtools along with Bjerregaard, who is now based in Brazil as a drilling manager. This leaves neither with much free time—a sacrifice Krogh is quick to dismiss as essential for the company’s development.

“We just love it. We both have this [entrepreneurial] spirit. You need to be willing to give everything to get your own company going, and we’re doing just that,” he says. Krogh adds that the lean business model, with both founders working part-time and eschewing global, yet costly, manufacturing bases in favor of local Danish firms, keeps operating costs down.

And while the client roster already includes the likes of Maersk Drilling; Shell in Malaysia, Qatar and Norway; Statoil and TAQA Bratani, the team’s sights are set on accelerated growth.

In December, fellow Dane Roland Boysen joined the company as chief commercial officer to devise and implement this strategy, encompassing product development, the evolution of the rental business that currently accounts for around 10% of revenue, and building the international agent network.

Despite the low commodity price, Krogh is bullish when talking about the organization’s prospects. “Even more so now, the challenge for the industry will be to improve efficiency,” he says. “Businesses are facing cuts, but there is still room for companies like us who help increase safety and efficiency, as well as make the conditions better for the rig crews.”

Brazil, an area where Rigtools has experienced some success already and where Bjerregaard is based, will be a geographical focus for the company. However, plans for an office are not yet in development.

Meanwhile, the Danish Energy Agency is set to announce awards in the seventh licensing round. When asked if Rigtools has aspirations to grow its business closer to home in a region currently accounting for only around 1% of revenue, Krogh says, “We haven’t really had much focus on [the Danish sector] so far, but it is something we want to do, particularly when we can do so from position of strength.”