Mass-flow excavation (MFE) company Rotech Subsea is celebrating a significant milestone in its eight-year history by embarking on its 200th project.
Rotech Subsea’s innovative T-shaped excavation tools have worked throughout the globe in areas as diverse as Azerbaijan, the Gulf of Mexico, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Europe.
The Aberdeen company’s first project was a seabed preparation job for rock dumping at Cardiff Bay, Wales. The 200th is an excavation on a decommissioning project in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Ken Mackie, president of Rotech Subsea, which has bases in Aberdeen, Houston, Mexico and Singapore, said: “This is a significant milestone for the company. The next goal is reaching the 300 mark over the next two years.
“The company has gone from strength to strength since it was founded in Aberdeen eight years ago. Our engineers continue developing and upgrading equipment which make our patented range of tools increasingly desirable for a wider range of work.”
In 2001, Rotech Subsea – one of three companies in Rotech Holdings – completed three projects. To date in 2009, the 90-strong staff has worked on 40 projects, with projections to complete almost 60 by the year-end.
The Rotech “T” tools work by using two counter-rotating propellers to channel a powerful flow of water downwards to clear subsea material, rock dump, and mud.
The tools are infinitely controllable and monitored using real-time sonar. As there is no physical contact with the seafloor or structures, there is no risk of damage to sensitive structures.
Previously, the alternative was to use cumbersome dredging equipment and costly support vessels, which meant some jobs took up to five times longer, with the added risk of damaging seabed installations or pipelines.
Rotech says the device offers businesses, particularly those in the oil&gas sector, a faster, cost-effective option to tackle a range of excavation applications, such as pipeline/cable burial, pipeline de-burial for maintenance, wellhead clearance, rock-dump removal, decommissioning work, sand-wave levelling, hurricane repair work, harbour deepening and mud removal.
Mackie: “Rotech Subsea has been a fantastic success story to date, but we know the potential for our ground-breaking technology is massive throughout the world.”
And with windfarms starting to appear offshore, notably in the North Sea, potentially a further lucrative line of business is about to open up.