Oceanteam 2000 - growing to meet demand

Source: Energy Digital

Date :09/05/2008 08:45:01

Ranked at number two in The Sunday Times 2007 Fast Track 100 league, Oceanteam 2000 is undergoing enormous growth and is looking to consolidate in 2008.

Written by Lucy Mowatt and Produced by Kiron Chavda

When the employees of an offshore oil & gas subsea inspection company based in Norfolk were told their jobs were being relocated to Aberdeen, they decided to take matters into their own hands and secure their own future; they set up Oceanteam 2000 (Ot2k) in 1999 to provide diving, survey and ROV services to the oil & gas industry.

Isabel Day, MD, who has been with the company for three years says, “It’s an extremely exciting time for the company. It’s come a long way in the seven years since it started.” Indeed, the company has grown significantly in recent years. Ot2k achieved 206 percent annual sales growth in 2006, and is now listed at number two in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 for 2007.

Investing in growth

The shareholders in Ot2k realised that to achieve further growth and expansion, serious investment was needed. To achieve this Ot2k was sold and a new Company - GDV Subsea - was formed. This has helped contribute to Ot2k’s growth. Isabel explains that Ot2k had been looking for additional capital to enable expansion because it had been restricted in recent years to charter the right vessel at the right price.

“We put a case together to take it to the Norwegian market, which understands shipping a lot better than the UK, to finance three ships. Everyone we presented the business plan to said that we had a viable case,” she continues. And the rest is history; company shares were sold and it is now waiting on the delivery of the three vessels in 2009.

The company will gain two new saturation dive support vessels, one of which will be equipped with an integral 24 man saturation diving system, the other an 18 man system. The final vessel will be an ROV support vessel, which will be equipped with new ROVs and together they will extend Ot2k’s capabilities.

These vessels are also new ‘Clean Design’ vessels which are quieter and emit lower emissions than other ships; with double skin hulls they are also less likely to suffer from fuel and oil leaks than older vessels. “This clean design categorisation is being led by some of the oil majors; the BPs and the Shells are now saying that any new contracts awarded will give preference to vessels with ‘clean design’ to reduce emissions and improve carbon footprints. This will help phase out some of the older tonnage,” Isabel explains.

Isabel goes on to explain that further investments have also been made: “We spent an additional £8-9 million on ROVs this year to expand our ROV curriculum. This investment includes three Triton XLX systems, which are called heavy work-class ROVs in the industry.”

These systems are able to work at depths of 4,000…

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Oceanteam 2000