Decom Engineering has secured further contracts across the globe after its chopsaw tool successfully cut its teeth during trials at the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen.
The pipeline decommissioning specialist said it had bagged two contracts worth more than £300,000 in the North Sea and offshore west Africa.
Decom has designed and developed its own range of cold-cutting saws which can be used to tackle a variety of energy decommissioning tasks.
Headquartered in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, the family-run company recently invested over £250,000 in a new 6,000 square feet Aberdeenshire base at Potterton, near Dyce, to be closer to North Sea oil and gas clients.
Its latest win includes a conductor recovery and removal project on a vessel in the North Sea, during which the firm’s C1 Chopsaw is expected to complete eight cuts on behalf of a global offshore contractor.
In addition, Norwegian-headquartered subsea and offshore wind farm contractor Havfram has commissioned the group to carry out cutting operations on a ROVCON connecter in water depths of up to 800m off the coast of west Africa.
Both projects are firsts for the company, and were secured following a series of technical trials of the C1 system at JFD Global’s testing tank and the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen.
It also follows the completion of two phases of another offshore project in the Gulf of Thailand, in which Decom’s chop saws performed hundreds of cuts on piping of up to 16” diameter.
The firm’s managing director Sean Conway said: “The successful completion of a strategic project offshore Thailand and our imminent mobilisation on workscopes in the North Sea and Africa, demonstrates that our technology is gaining traction with energy companies and contractors who have technically challenging requirements on a range of international decommissioning projects.
“Recent technical trials in Aberdeen have proven our cutting technologies can operate safely in deeper waters and that they are preferable to rival solutions where accessibility to subsea infrastructure is an issue.”
The company added that following completion of its upcoming North Sea work, it hopes to be in a “prime position” to secure more significant work scopes from the same client at a second UK platform.
Commercial director Nick McNally noted: “The technical trials in Aberdeen gave reassurance and confidence to the end-clients, and proved our saws are capable of operating in water depths of 800 metres or more, opening up new opportunities for engagement on more challenging decommissioning projects.”
Havfram senior engineer Steven Gibson explained the rationale behind the use of the tool: “The potential of Decom’s saw to cut the heavy grade material we are going to be cutting through on the west African seabed, the speed of the cut, and the ability to position it in a very restricted space, were the driving factors in awarding this workscope.”
Mr Conway said Decom Engineering would continue to invest in infrastructure and to build its asset portfolio to enable it to tackle more technically challenging decommissioning work.
It has already voiced plans to create up to ten new roles in the coming years.
“Our R&D and engineering teams are currently working on new chop saws which are capable of handling piping of up to 36” diameter in anticipation of potentially winning other contracts in the second half of this year,” he continued.
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