Commissioning management specialist qedi expects its turnover for the current year (2010) to come in at £48million, and that 2011 will see a further lift of 35-40% to as much as £67million for the company.
The Aberdeen-headquartered firm has already secured £61million worth of business for the coming year, and achieved a rolling growth rate of 30% per annum over the past four years.
And it has doubled margins by 100% over those four years, boosted by proprietary high-value technology and consultancy services.
Managing director Stuart McLeod fully expects more jobs to be created, albeit most are likely to be overseas as qedi builds its international portfolio further.
“We will be recruiting 50-100 on the ex-pat side next year. That’s a fairly conservative forecast, and dependent on the magnitude of our projects. We currently have 330-350 employees working globally, and built up from standing start in 2003,” said McLeod, who joined the company in 2004.
At that point qedi, whose “brass plate” is on a door in Mauritius, had a turnover of about £10million.
“This year, we conservatively forecast £48million of which Kazakhstan will contribute around £18-£20million; UK about £15million and US around £34million,” said McLeod.
Qedi has two main clients, BP and Shell. However, negotiations are taking place that could see this grow to three in the months ahead. Assuming success, this should see a further leap in turnover and jobs creation, albeit not before late 2011 through 2012.
The BP and Shell contracts are described as global master agreements. The agreement with BP is for the use of qedi’s completion commissioning management system and technical services to support that – basically people and software.
According to McLeod, this is “mandated within BP’s major project common process. All major greenfield projects must use the GoTechnology system.
“What that allows us to do is to look at the major capex project work that BP has coming up and allows us to forecast a base service on each project,” he said.
Specifics for next year include supporting Chirag (Caspian); Clair Ridge, and recently the firm transferred over to the offshore part of the Valhall project where it has 25-30 engineers working in support roles.
McLeod’s expectation is that qedi will also get to support the decommissioning aspect of Valhall, as old infrastructure is to come out.
“BP is very committed to see the same system used on its brownfield assets,” he said. “We have just brought in a multi-licence agreement covering 16 North Sea assets. This is about using the system for major modifications. We have also received a purchase order for the nine BP assets in Azerbaijan as well.”
The Shell frame agreement was secured in late 2009.
“Shell went out to the global marketplace to pick a completion management system for Shell to apply corporately,” said McLeod. “This was done by Shell Global Solutions in the Hague. I believe 48 companies went forward; there was a year of technical and commercial evaluation and qedi was awarded the contract.”
The net effect is that Shell corporate completion management system is the qedi system and is both global and evergreen in nature.
Shell tested the qedi approach with its PDO business in Oman. However, the first greenfield project that the super-major has allocated is the Kashagan full field Phase II offshore Kazakhstan.
“We understand that marketplace well because we did the early oil project for Agip KCO,” said McLeod, adding that the firm has around 120 expatriates out there.
Together, BP and Shell account for roughly 75% of qedi’s turnover.
As for bringing a further large client on board, McLeod said: “There are four that we’re speaking with at the moment. We are going through technical and commercial reviews with two. However, we’re also getting a lot of interest from a number of independents.
“And, surprisingly, we have started supporting EPC (engineering, procurement and commissioning) contractors.”
McLeod said qedi is one of a rare breed. “We’re one of very few companies to dedicate to being commissioning specialists. Commissioning has traditionally been a bolt-on service by an EPC contractor. Because qedi is focused only on this aspect, we’re now being recognised by the marketplace as being a home for commissioning personnel. They have not been used to having a home in the past.”
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