Pipeline engineers Stats Group, has invested £1.3million in new facilities in Houston to expand its services in the US and South American oil and gas markets.
The Aberdeenshire-based group, which designs, manufactures and installs a range of pipeline isolation and intervention tools, has opened a 25,000 sq ft office and workshop facility in Brittmoore and expects to add to its US headcount over the next year.
Stephen Rawlinson, previously general manager in Canada, has been promoted to vice president for the Americas, while Scott McNae has been elevated from his previous role as global projects manager to general manager for USA operations.
The directors of Stats believe there are project opportunities in the US onshore and offshore pipeline sector, with Houston also providing a springboard to work for projects in South America. The company will also target the refineries, chemical plants and oil and gas platform sector, offering rentals, sales and servicing options.
The new facility comes on the back of winning contracts worth £10miilion providing “hot tapping” pipeline intervention services to a North America based energy infrastructure firm.
Mr Rawlinson said: “We believe we can replicate that success in the US.
“To be able to make the best out of emerging opportunities we need local facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and feet on the ground. This investment in Houston will provide us with a framework to get in to the tendering rounds, quickly start mobilisation when projects are confirmed and build on our track record of successful project execution in North America.”
Headquartered in the rapidly expanding business parks in Kintore, near Aberdeen, Stats Group employs 280 staff in the UK, Canada, USA and the Middle East, specialising in the isolation, intervention, repair and testing of pipeline systems.
The Houston expansion follows a similar investment in Canada where the company doubled its workshop and testing facilities in Edmonton and added a project support office in Calgary.
At the start of the year, Stats securing £4.3million investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF). The cash injection was a follow-on funding deal after the UK bank-backed BGF invested an initial £7.8million in 2012.
Chief executive Pete Duguid founded Stats in 1998 with his sister, Lorraine Porter.
Last year, the firm invested £500,000 in opening a global training centre in Kintore.
Recent work carried out by the group has included isolating the Forties pipeline system, which transports more than one-third of the UK’s total oil production, on behalf of Apache North Sea so that a subsea isolation valve could be safely installed.
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