An Aberdeen entrepreneur now based in Houston has shrugged off a $20million (£13.2million) hit to his business as a result of the Petrobras “graft” scandal.
Andy Grieve, the president of Aberdeen and Houston-based Hampco, said he expects to deliver just half of an order for custom-built equipment to Sete Brasil, which commissions drilling rigs for the state controlled oil giant facing a large-scale corruption investigation.
Mr Grieve, who relocated to Houston in 2005, says an initial $40million (£26.4million) contract with Sete has been sharply reduced after Brazilian prosecutors filed charges against Petrobras executives in December, in a scandal that has extended as far as the office of Brazil’s president. Dilma Rousseff, who was head of Petrobras for seven years, has faced calls for impeachment over the corruption investigation, although she is not directly implicated in the alleged kickback scandal.
Mr Greive estimated he will eventually deliver just half of his firm’s contract after Sete last month said it will only deliver 13 to 17 of an initial order book of 29 oil rigs to Petrobras.
Mr Grieve said: “We are having a tough time at the moment due to our Brazilian customers getting caught up in the fallout from the Petrobras corruption scandal – financing virtually stopped dead about six months ago and is only slowly starting to get sorted out.”
Hampco is based in the Houston Energy Corridor, an area West of the city that is host to a number of oil majors including BP America and ExxonMobil. It has offices in Singapore, Australia and Brazil, although its official headquarters is still Blairs College, Aberdeen, while the majority of its design is done from Baildon, North Yorkshire. The company employs 25 people and works with manufacturers in Singapore, South Africa, the UK and the US.
Mr Grieve remains optimistic. His contracts in Brazil are backed by the UK government’s Export Finance scheme in conjunction with the firm’s lender, the Bank of Scotland. He says his firm is nimble enough to manage the setback. He is also adamant that he will continue to work with companies in Brazil as the country attempts to exploit the offshore “pre-salt” area thought to hold 50billion barrels of oil. Yesterday at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, the Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy, Eduardo Braga, announced a new bid round for oil and gas exploration which was open to companies without a Brazilian partner for the first time.
Mr Grieve said: “We’ll have to batten down the hatches, cut costs and reduce our new projects until the end of the year.
“Although it is hurting my business now, and I’ve had lots of sleepless nights, I expect it will work out. There’s still tremendous potential there.”
Mr Grieve said he initially moved to Texas with a view to staying just a year but has now been in the US for a decade.
“I never wanted to leave Aberdeen but now I wish I’d moved here much earlier in my life. I don’t mean to be critical of Aberdeen but I couldn’t move back for the weather.”