Bosses of Maxoil Solutions see major opportunities around the world for the fast-growing oil and gas consultancy.
The Aberdeen-based company was set up in 2004 by its managing director, Iraq-born Wally Georgie, with fellow director Mel Dow.
Mr Georgie, who has now been working in the oil and gas industry for more than 30 years, said: “We were initially a two-man business, but have since grown to employ 20; eight of them directly and the rest as contractors.
“With firm growth plans for this year including expansion into three new international offices, I would hope that by the end of 2010 we will have a workforce of 30.”
There are no immediate plans for a move into Iraq, however, although Mr Georgie, 57, is talking to oil operators who have concessions in his home country and he would be prepared to work with them there.
He has an impressive educational background – gaining first a BSc in chemistry from Basra University in Iraq, then an MSc in polymer technology at Loughborough, a PhD in chemical technology from Strathclyde , and finally an MSc in safety engineering at Aberdeen.
After gaining an ICI grant to carry out PhD work at Strathclyde University in 1974, he worked in product development for the plastic and pharmaceutical industries between 1976 and 1979 in Glasgow and Middlesbrough before joining NL Petroleum Services working between London, Houston and Aberdeen.
That was the start of his career in the oil and gas industry, in the area of oil and gas chemical treatment and corrosion issues.
As a technical manager based in Aberdeen with NL, he worked in the UK, Norwegian and Danish sectors of the North Sea dealing with different flow-assurance issues, oil-water separation and produced-water handling problems.
Mr Georgie moved to Norwegian company Statoil’s Statfjord operation in Stavanger in 1987 as senior staff engineer providing operations support for the fields three platforms in all aspects of oil, gas and water processing. The role expanded to project support for the Sleipner development and working in troubleshooting at other Statoil facilities, mainly in the area of separation.
Mr Georgie left Statoil in 1999 and started Primas, an oil and gas consultancy in Aberdeen, before establishing Maxoil. Maxoil’s main areas of expertise are in specialist process engineering and production-chemistry consultancy services for the oil and gas industry.
The firm is expecting a busy 2010, with plans to grow its presence significantly in three new international arenas over the coming 12 months. It already has a Norwegian subsidiary, Maxoil Norge, which opened a Bergen office in 2008, but is looking to build on this presence in Norway and expand to Stavanger to support its growing operations and increase its market penetration in Scandinavia.
Maxoil, which also has an office in Houston – set up in 2005 in response to demand for work in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska – intends to expand its global reach further still, through establishing presences in both Perth in Australia and Malaysia with the aim of capitalising on the growing Asia-Pacific markets. It has already secured an exclusive agency agreement in Malaysia, with oil and gas technical and engineering service provider Dialog Systems, which will see its full range of services offered in the major oil and gas hubs throughout the Far East.
Following a successful first five years in business for Maxoil, it recorded a turnover of more than £3million for its past financial year to the end of March 2009 and says it is on target to improve on these results this year.
Mr Georgie said: “We’re very pleased to have reached the milestone of five years in business, during which we have positioned Maxoil at the forefront of supplying specialist process and production chemistry consultancy services within the oil and gas consultancy sector.
“A major element of our growth strategy has always been to expand our global reach by establishing bases in other key countries.
“Having built a reputation within the UK market, we’re keen to replicate these services farther afield.”