North-east oil service company ThinJack said yesterday it had secured deals worth more than £600,000 since April.
The Westhill-based firm added the work was won, despite a harsh economic backdrop, by expanding its horizons in key overseas markets.
An ongoing focus on innovation and a push to increase the global footprint have proved to be a successful marriage for ThinJack this year.
The company has built a strong reputation for separating flanges, pipeline coatings and other heavy components which have fused together due to corrosion or internal friction.
Its paper-thin, patented steel “envelopes” are inserted between the two items requiring separation, then inflated with pressurised fluid in a process avoiding work stoppages and costly delays.
Earlier this year, the firm added wellhead theft deterrent NuttySecurity to its product portfolio.
Described as “the oil field and industrial equivalent of car wheel security nuts”, NuttySecurity was developed with a particular focus on the Nigerian and Egyptian markets.
Another product, ThinJackGAP, which has been on the market for only a year, is said to reduce the time it takes to separate extremely stuck flanges.
Plans to grow the company’s foothold in Malaysia have taken a significant step forward through a partnership with a local agent, MKI Engineering Services (Sarawak), supported by ThinJack’s Kevin Saunders in Australia.
ThinJack managing director Guy Bromby said: “Low-cost production enhancement from repairing previously shut-in platform wells has replaced more expensive subsea developments and drilling programmes.
“Overseas markets are increasingly using technology services to eliminate hours of critical path time, instead of using conventional techniques, and so flow a well earlier.
“The combination of these, as well as an ethical and mutually trusting interaction with our customers, has increased the popularity of ThinJack’s specialist services.”
ThinJack, which is exhibiting at the SPE Offshore Europe oil and gas show in Aberdeen this week, is owned by Mr Bromby and his wife, Lesley.
The 12-year-old company – established by the Brombys, along with Alastair MacDonald in 2005 – has delivered work for clients in the North Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Australia, Middle East, west Africa and Malaysia.
Its technology has been used in scores of major projects worldwide, in situations where traditional separation techniques would have involved costly and lengthy shutdowns.