Oil Plus, a consultancy owned by a well known north-east entrepreneur, has secured a number of international contract awards totalling more than £1.5million in the first half of this year.
The firm, acquired by Mark Cavanagh in 2017, said the deals meant it was on track to increase its revenues by 50% and meet its £4.75m growth target by 2023.
Mr Cavanagh bought the Berkshire-based firm for an undisclosed fee from a division of global industrial giant Smiths Group.
The Newbury (Berkshire, UK) headquartered business, which also has an office in Aberdeen, has signed deals including a 12-month production chemistry agreement with a North Sea FPSO operator worth a seven-figure sum, a chemical testing project for Vedanta (Cairn India) in India, and a water injectivity study for SNEPCO, the operating arm of Shell in Nigeria.
Despite the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the global process and production oilfield solutions company said it ended last year with an order book worth over £3.2m, and with its operating profits up by 23%.
Oil Plus has been providing produced water treatment, injection and production chemistry solutions to the global oil and gas sector for more than 40 years.
Bumps in the road
Clarke Shepherd, the company’s global business development director said: “Like most businesses, the Covid pandemic coupled with the uncertain oil price caused several bumps in the road last year.
“We took prudent measures to maintain our competitive edge and ensure we were able to continue supporting our clients around the world with the same high standard of reliable services they are accustomed to.
“At the same time, we maintained a tight control on our overheads in line with the size of our business and as a result, we’ve started the 2021 fiscal year in a more robust position, with a number of new strategically significant contracts secured.
“Based on the recent trio of contract awards in the North Sea, India and Africa and a steady pipeline of further new business on the horizon, we are confident that our instantly scalable team and further organic growth will support our target being achieved by the end of 2023.”
New recruits
Work is also well underway on two work scopes Oil Plus secured last year in Libya, including a produced water re-injection study for Zueitina Oil Company (ZOC).
© Supplied by Oil PLusIn the last few months, the firm has added another 10 personnel to its 46-strong workforce in the UK, including Scott Binnie as technical manager based in Newbury.
Mr Binnie has extensive experience in managing complex high value campaigns and has been providing project and process engineering support to Oil Plus as a consultant since 2019.
In this permanent position, he will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the team’s technical delivery in line with operational growth, and also oversee governance across all the technical functions in the company.