SIGMA Offshore, an Aberdeen firm specialising in the provision of offshore mooring systems, has made two board level appointments and signed a deal it hopes will lead to significant orders from China.
The firm described its recruitment of Alistair Dornan – the former executive chairman of oil and gas consultancy and engineering group Xodus – as its first chief executive as a “real coup”, while Neil Galbraith has been appointed commercial director.
Mr Dornan, who is also now a Sigma shareholder, has previously worked at oil giant Shell and as a director at Genesis Oil and Gas Consultants – now owned by French energy service firm Technip.
He moved to Xodus in 2005 and was responsible for setting up its business in Perth, Australia, in 2007.
Sigma, which secured £3.55million funding from investment firm Energy Ventures in April, has invented and developed its proprietary Smart Mooring System for floating production operators and contractors worldwide.
The equipment is fitted to the bow of oil tankers – minimising hull invasion and freeing up tanker space, which Sigma says can significantly reduce costs and save time.
Target markets are mostly outside Europe and cover South America, Australasia and the Far East.
A memorandum of understanding has just been secured for Sigma to be a preferred turnkey supplier of moorings and fluid-transfer systems for the Chinese National Offshore Oil Com- pany.
Mr Dornan said: “Sigma was invited by CNOOC to discuss our moorings and consultancy capability. We were very well received. I feel there is tremendous scope for doing business due to the relationships we have developed out there.”
He added: “We aim to build sales up year-on-year. Our market research, which includes recent publications by Douglas-Westwood on the state of the floating production market, shows there is a very real demand for our system.”
Sigma’s specialist engineering consultancy arm is targeting the North Sea as well as other key oil and gas producing regions.
John Baross, the company’s operations director and founder, said: “Alistair is well-known in the oil and gas industry and his decision to join and invest in Sigma Offshore puts us in a very strong position.”
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