At 2am this morning Aberdeen company M2 Subsea, “pushed the button on setting up in Houston”.
The ROV operations firm, incorporated on December 7 last year, sees the US Gulf of Mexico as a key market for its services and is said to be very close to landing its first contract in the region, possibly within days.
Mike Winstanley, one of the four co-founders of M2 Subsea who between them have well over 100 years combined experience in the offshore industry, said that a number of GoM jobs were being negotiated and that award of the first was imminent.
A couple of the work packages being bid are multi-year and would laya a solid foundation for growth in the region.
Though the North Sea is considered to be important, Winstanley told us that the US market is of fundamental importance to M2 Subsea’s forward plans.
Even though it is barely six months since incorporation, the company has secured and completed a couple of jobs working with a rented remotely operated vehicle.
It hit the headlines in Cumbria for the emergency inspection work carried out on the Eamont bridge, which was damaged in the massive floods precipitated by Storm Frank that wreaked havoc with infrastructure in the county. For that job, M2 Subsea deployed a mini-ROV to carry out a 3D sonar survey.
The firm’s founders are Mike Arnold (CEO), Mark Corley (financial), Mark Wood (operations) and Mike Winstanley (business development).
They are self-funded at this stage and all have worked together at various times over the past two to three decades including with Bibby, ROVtech and Hallin.
Winstanley and Arnold first encountered one another back in the 1980s at Bergen Underwater Services, otherwise known as BUS, while Corley started out at Schlumberger before going subsea.
“The concept of this business is to build on the many relationships that we have between us,” said Winstanley who was most recently sales director of Bowtech, which was acquired by Teledyne Technologies early last year.
He explained that M2Subsea would initially hire ROV gear and later build a stable based on acquired and new-build units.
Under the current five-year plan, the aim is to build a stable of 10-12 ROV systems, typically 3,000m capability work-class vehicles, plus 1,000m-rated observation machines.
Winstanley disclosed that the firm is “talking with funders” as the capital cost could be considerable, given that big new ROVs can cost £3-5million apiece.
He said too that M2 Subsea would take advantage of the downturn to if possible pick up nearly new ROVs from distressed underwater contractors of which there are a number in serious financial difficulties.
It appears there are bargains to be had, indeed a “plethora of nearly new equipment” is there for the taking.
As for the current downturn and the counter-cyclical decision to get going again with a new venture, Winstanley said: “I’ve been working for 41 years in the offshore industry, 33 of the in subsea.
“This is the fourth recession we’ve been through and survived, so this one’s nothing new.”
Recommended for you
