Creating order and making a system or process work before it descends into farce, failure and potential financial loss drives Tom Norland, 49, the Aberdeen-based managing director of PTC’s international business.
As a teenager he wanted to become a car mechanic but his focus shifted when he attended the Stavanger Maritime Technical College, where he gained his first qualifications in mechanical engineering.
With opportunities in oil and gas widely available, he took the plunge and has never looked back, making a name for himself as a committed technology developer after holding key roles with majors and independent contractors across the Norwegian and UK sectors of the North Sea.
Like so many in the industry, the draw to Aberdeen was almost magnetic early on in Mr Norland’s career, having spent a considerable period of his career in energy in Scotland; starting at Montrose in 1980.
He said: “Coming here for the first time with Otis Wireline, my first employer in oil, was special.
“Montrose was the training centre for the whole of Europe, and I was getting an opportunity to be trained by the best, alongside people from the Middle East, Africa and other Scandinavians.
“Aberdeen has now become a second home, not just because of work but because I enjoy my time here. It is a great city, it has made such a big impact on the energy industry and I have a lot of friends and colleagues, plus it’s good that it is not too far from home in Norway.
“That is why our PTC international office is in Aberdeen, because it is a hub for energy. It is a world-leading city and it has great connections to Norway and the rest of the world, and it has great potential to keep getting better.”
PTC opened its international business development and operations headquarters in Aberdeen’s west end earlier this year, with Mr Norland settling in the Granite City full-time.
The division is already on target for a turnover of more than £4million for the year and will aim to double its staffing to 20 within one or two years.
The company as a whole, established in 2002, employs more than 50 worldwide and has a turnover in excess of £10million.
It designs and manufactures gas-lift valves, jet pumps and recently introduced “intelligent dummy” circulation valves to meet challenges set out by the industry to deliver reliability and performance which significantly increase integrity, operational efficiency, productivity and “lifecycle economics”.
Mr Norland said: “The differences in technologies usually come down to price; if you pay a small amount for an item, it’s less likely that it’s going to last.
“Our gas-lift valves may cost more than less-advanced designs which are mass-produced every year, but they come with a warranty which we stand by 100%, and are specifically designed to last longer, be more efficient and help you make more profit.
“So you have to take a balanced view; do you want to pay less, but with the increased risk of failure and almost a guarantee that time will be lost on the production side where you actually make your money, or do you invest a little more in better components and greatly increase your productivity and profitability?
“That’s really why we do what we do, because we know that we can answer these questions and challenges. We’ve been doing it since we started.”
Mr Norland does not believe in stargazing for ideas.
His firm develops technologies based on questions asked by clients. He said: “Finding solutions to problems is how you can really succeed and make an impact, in whatever business sector you operate. Someone always has a need for a specific fix, or needs an existing bit of equipment or asset to be better – that’s why we focus on coming up with answers to problems.
“Coming up with those answers has led to us becoming one of the few companies which has accreditations from Statoil for setting standards which the industry now follows.”
Mr Norland speaks with pride about the PTC operation; unable to hide his glee at not only having brought a team of world-renowned experts under the same roof, but having done that with very little persuasion.
“Our worldwide business-development team of Joe Allan, Alan Brodie, Jim Hardie, Ian Taggart: all of these guys have worked for the majors or other big companies in oil and gas. They could have stayed where they were but instead have made up a really amazing team at PTC. That makes me really enthusiastic because I know that when we all sit down to work on something, then we’re really going to make it happen.”
Since being founded in Stavanger in 2002, PTC has expanded into Houston and Rio de Janeiro in addition to Aberdeen and its turnover keeps growing.
Mr Norland believes the only way to ensure its ongoing success is to resist the temptation to give up its independence.
He said: “We have had offers for the business but we have not worked this hard to simply become part of a bigger machine. We have had success because we are in control of every aspect of the work we do.
“PTC was founded as a place of excellence, where we have experts who are at the very top of the business and who know how to achieve a result. If we take on a challenge, we will come up with a solution, period.
“If we became part of another operation, we might not be able to take on these challenges. That’s why we always say, no matter who it is that has the question, if you have something that needs fixed, come to us and we will put in the time and expertise to find a way.”
He sees the future for the Aberdeen operation as one of growth, supporting the oil and gas industry globally.
Away from questions of well productivity, Mr Norland is a family man with five children aged from 15 to 27, and four grandchildren from three months to six years old. He said: “I go home to my family whenever I am free and we go to the football every week possible. I was one of the fans who was at the match when Stavanger club FK Viking beat Chelsea in the Uefa Cup.
“We beat them 4-2 at home when the stadium was under redevelopment and they had to seat almost everyone in the one stand; it looked like a full house on the TV but there were really only a few thousand fans there.”
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