The founder of DeltaTek Global has learned a lot in the three years since he started up the oilfield tool manufacturing business.
Being realistic is high up the list of lessons learned for Tristam Horn.
“The length of time you expect something to take – you can double it,” he said. “How much money you expect it to take – triple it.”
Mr Horn also recommends concentrating on delivering what the customer needs.
“Focus on getting the technology right, getting it out there, and saving your clients money,” he said.
“That’s what is going to move the business and the revenue. You haven’t got a business until you’ve got a customer that’s willing to pay for your product.
“Don’t start developing the solution to a problem you’ve not fully qualified with the customer.”
Wise words from the Newcastle University mechanical engineering graduate, who set up his business during 2015, as the downturn cranked into full swing.
The first couple of years were difficult, characterised by “big ups and downs”, for Mr Horn’s new venture.
It was also a stressful time for his young family.
Mr Horn had saved enough money to launch DeltaTek and get through the first year without too many bumps and bruises.
But the following year he found the business was still “quite a way off” where he thought it would be.
“Starting a business and trying to develop ideas does not always pay for a family, so I had to dip in and out of consultancy work for a time,” he said.
What possessed Mr Horn to leave BP, where he had spent about five years as a drilling engineer and then a supervisor, at such an uncertain time for the industry?
Mr Horn, originally from the midlands, said: “I decided to leave when everyone was talking about cost efficiency.
“Industry had just started on a downward trend and there was a real need to get lean and focus on costs, so it felt like the perfect time.
“All the products DeltaTek is developing are about cost efficiency and saving rig time.
“Our ethos is to save rig time.”
DeltaTek has developed SeaCure, a tool used for constructing wells with more reliability and speed. Mr Horn said the subsea cementing system reduces rig time by 5% compared to traditional techniques.
It will be trialled in the North Sea by Chevron and Siccar Point Energy this summer.
A full product launch is expected in September.
He is also excited about ArticuLock, which he described as a sort of ball-and-socket joint used to reduce the bending stress on landing strings – heavy duty pipes which can be used to deploy heavy equipment and casing to the well site.
Mr Horn said: “In the North Sea with its bad weather, a huge proportion of the drilling budget is allocated to waiting for the weather. It’s about 20%, which is ridiculous. ArticuLock removes fatigue in the system.”
A typical load for ArticuLock, which was recently trialled on an offshore support vessel, is 45-50 tonnes, but it can handle more if needed.
It seems the present day is a good time to be a technology developer.
“Operators have done all they can to cut costs using traditional methods,” Mr Horn said. “The driver now from operators is to get after new technology.”
He said new technologies and new techniques are getting more support and respect, culminating in more opportunities for field trials.
“People want to help,” said Mr Horn, whose company was part of entrepreneurial support body Elevator’s second cohort.
The Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) is now helping DeltaTek take its products from proposal to trial in a matter of months, rather than years.
It takes care of one of the biggest obstacles Mr Horn has faced.
“When I first started talking to people, they said I had good ideas,” Mr Horn said. “But then they would ask me to come back when I’d got 10 runs under my belt. That has been a real challenge – getting operators to commit to being the first. When you think you’ve got an operator ready to field-trial your equipment, it’s all hands to the pump.
“Then it gets pulled for a plethora of reasons. We had that happen to us a few times. An operator was ready to trial SeaCure then decided not to drill the well. It’s really important to find an operator that will give your technology a go.”
Mr Horn said DeltaTek’s development as a business had “really accelerated in the last nine months”, highlighted by the appointment of two industry experts.
Dave Shand, formerly of Stats Group and Expro, joined DeltaTek as its chief commercial and operations officer.
Steve Bruce, who spent a large chunk of his career with Schlumberger, is DeltaTek’s chairman and chief technology officer.