Aberdeen offshore solutions provider OEG Energy Group has reported a 35% increase in revenues across 2023, achieving $434 million (£343m) in turnover.
A series of acquisitions over the past year boosted OEG revenues, with the company taking on five new businesses in 2023.
OEG expects to hit $500 million in revenues in 2024 as part of an ambitious growth strategy to eventually surpass $1 billion in annual revenues within the next five years.
The acquisitions helped OEG achieve a “key strategic milestone” of an even revenue split across its traditional oil and gas focused OEG Offshore and its OEG Renewables division.
Speaking to Energy Voice, OEG chief executive officer John Heiton said 2023 had been a “fantastic” and “very transformational” year for the company, which also marked its 50th anniversary.
© Supplied by OEG“Such was the rate of growth of our Renewables business in 2023 that, despite continued growth of our Offshore business through the year, group revenues are now well balanced across our two divisions of Offshore and Renewables which is a major milestone when one considers OEG had zero exposure to renewables in 2020,” he said.
Mr Heiton said OEG achieved approximately 15% organic growth in 2023, which was evenly split between its traditional offshore and renewables divisions.
OEG acquisitive growth in 2023
The company achieved the remaining growth through acquisitions, and Mr Heiton said OEG is expecting further growth in 2024.
“Both our businesses are going very well and we expect to see mid-teens growth from our traditional energy business this year and similar, to a bit higher, in renew,” he said.
“We also have some other acquisitions, one which we like to think we’ll complete in the next week, certainly this month, and another one which we’re exclusivity with which could complete towards the end of quarter one.”
© Shutterstock
“Including those, which is additional to our organic growth target, that would tip us over the 50/50.”
Mr Heiton said the two upcoming potential acquisitions are both UK-based companies, with the company set to continue adding to its 1,000 strong global workforce.
Offshore wind growth in Asia
Mr Heiton said the company is seeing positive signs in the offshore wind sector as the industry strives to move past a tumultuous period in 2023.
He said OEG is continuing to target emerging growth markets for offshore wind in Asia after experiencing early success in Taiwan.
“We’ve always been quite strong in Taiwan.. and we’re seeing people locking in our assets through to 2025/26, so it’s giving us some quite good visibility into the future,” he said.
“We’re starting in Taiwan and moving into other Asian regions like Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, so I think some of the headline press (around offshore wind) can be negative but there are ongoing projects that are moving into these new organic markets.
© Image: Bluestream Offshore“Of course the last CfD round in the UK was disappointing, but those wind farms would only be going into production towards the late part of the 2020s, so in the near term the ones we are working on are the ones that were in previous CfD rounds and have gone through FID, so we still see quite a good chain of projects moving and of course every time one of those wind farms comes into operation it expands it with end market force as well.”
Alongside an increasing focus on Asia, OEG is also continuing to invest in offshore wind opportunities in Europe.
OEG acquired Dutch firms Bluestream Offshore and Marine Coordination Services last year and will look to establish a hub for OEG Renewables in mainland Europe.
Growth in 2024
While OEG achieved slightly lower growth in its renewables segment in 2023 compared to 2022, Mr Heiton said the company expects to see revenues accelerate in 2024.
“I just comes down to project timings and some major capital activities,” he said.
“And in our traditional energy business, there’s a lot of activity going on in all of the key regions, but I would see the highlights being the Middle East, South America in Guyana and Brazil, and Australia.
© Supplied by OEG Offshore“Unfortunately for a Scottish guy, the North Sea is still a slower area, but we still expect to see growth there as well.”
The company is also targeting further activity in the transport of industrial gases, investing close to £8 million in the last two years on cryogenic tanks.
Mr Heiton said the diversification will allow it to take advantage of increasing demand for industrial gases in Asia and the Middle East.
OEG also sees as growing opportunities for gas transport in the hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in the medium to longer term, he said.
Mr Heiton said 2024 “looks set to be another year of strong growth” for the firm.
“OEG will continue to place a significant emphasis on innovation in technology and sustainability, as we seek to position the company as a leader in supporting a responsibly managed global energy transition,” he said.
Alongside this growth, OEG also managed to progress efforts to decarbonise its own operation.
OEG said it achieved a 23% reduction in emissions from OEG Offshore UK’s operations over the year.
