ABERDEEN oil service firm Flexlife, a specialist in subsea project and integrity management, announced its biggest deal to date yesterday.
It has signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazilian energy corporation Petrobras, which is expected to lead to work worth millions of pounds in the years ahead.
Flexlife will develop and provide a new integrity-management system and specialised engineering services for Petrobras’s international offshore oil and gas projects.
The Aberdeen firm established a presence in Brazil a year ago and this agreement will lead to its first work in South America.
The deal was struck during the recent OTC Brasil exhibition in Rio de Janeiro.
Flexlife chief executive Stuart Mitchell said: “This agreement results from Flexlife developing a strong presence in Brazil and we anticipate playing an important role in addressing the challenges of delivering safe production of oil and gas in deepwater fields.
“We have a team of engineering, technical and support staff who are all highly experienced in the Brazilian oil and gas market and all of us are very proud to be working with Petrobras. The potential is enormous for us and it is very significant for the future of Flexlife.”
In addition to investing in new offices in Rio de Janeiro, Flexlife is manufacturing its integrity-management products locally and offering a full assembly, deployment and maintenance service by staff based in the region.
“It has a team of six in Rio and numbers are expected to increase steadily.
Mr Mitchell added: “Flexlife has continued to build on its reputation for offering a full subsea integrity and project management package, assisting clients to cost-effectively manage all of their subsea assets and infrastructure. We have built up high levels of expertise in deepwater markets and have a proven track record of providing a service that helps operators reduce risk in a cost-effective manner; all of which helped us reach this agreement with Petrobras.”
The company also operates in America, Africa, the Far East and Mediterranean.
Flexlife was formed in 2007 and has grown to have more than 100 staff, the majority based in Aberdeen. Turnover for 2010-11 was £7.5million and is projected to rise to about £17.8million in the current financial year.
Two private-equity investors injected £5.5million into Flexlife a year ago to help its continued growth.
Maven Capital Partners and Simmons Parallel Energy took a minority stake in the business.
Flexlife was also named Scotland’s fastest-growing young company in 2010.
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