Aberdeen-based specialist explosives service provider Spex Services launched a new division earlier this year to capitalise on the business opportunities opening up in the decommissioning and salvage sectors. The company operates from three bases, an HQ in Dyce, a large testing site at Tillyfourie, and a fabrication facility in Dyce. Meg Chesshyre reports.
Spex Decom is headed by recently appointed decommissioning manager Eddie Grant, a 25-year veteran of the oil and gas decommissioning sector having held senior management posts with companies including Weatherford and Cutting Underwater Technologies UK.
Grant's specialist expertise in diamond wire, hydro abrasive and mechanical cutting technologies has seen him involved in projects in, primarily, the UK North Sea, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico. He will be responsible for spearheading the addition of fresh technologies to the company's portfolio of cutting tools and equipment, enabling Spex to offer an array of cutting solutions.
Creating a separate division was timely, says Grant - who also sits on the board of the UK's recently formed Decom North Sea organisation - because there are signs that the long-predicted boom in offshore infrastructure decommissioning business may at last be edging closer. The new division allows the company to provide a total, one stop package of products and services, he adds. Besides offering a range of explosive and non-explosive cutting options, Spex Decom's in-house capabilities also include environmental impact assessments, computer simulation and comparative assessments of potential cutting technologies.
Parent company Spex Services only came into being in May 2009 and yet over the past 12 months has seen its staff numbers rise from 25 to 42. 'These are extremely exciting times,' says group commercial director John Fox, who believes the new division could help lift turnover from £3.9 million to £6.2 million in the next financial year.
'Since the company's inception only two years ago we've already enjoyed considerable success and the creation of Spex Decom will enable us to complete our service offering and offer a truly one-stop solution for clients,' Fox adds.
According to Grant, the new division offers tailored engineering solutions and precision use of explosives for structural decommissioning on land and underwater, with a service portfolio extending to studies, comparative assessments, formulating procedures and conceptual design. The company's main oil-related activities are focused on pipe recovery, wellhead removal, pile severance, structural removal and anchor, wire and chain severance.
One of the new division's key advantages, Grant believes, is that it can offer a precision explosive capability as well as hydro-abrasive and diamond cutting technologies. 'We feel we have the complete package,' he says. 'We also have the combined experience of some of the older guys. We can get involved in studies, methodology, best practice, identifying the most appropriate technology, and so forth.
'We can also do modeling and feasibility studies.
'You need to have a tool box, because every other week there is an emergency - something's lost, or something's stuck in a pipeline, something's stuck down a well - and you need to inform and educate your clients about your capabilities.
'We are offering a variety of ways of doing severance. It is as simple as that, 'concludes Grant. OE
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