Published at 10:28, Wednesday, 18 July 2012

A NEWLY-appointed boss is hoping to harness his firm’s expertise to expand into new markets.

PLANS: Nick Jones is general manager of Oil States MCS CHRIS WARNER REF: 50035795B000

Nick Jones was appointed general manager of Oil States MCS earlier this year.

The company, which provides subsea connectors and cutting systems to the oil, gas and renewables sectors, employs 48 staff at its site on Sowerby Woods Business Park in Barrow.

Mr Jones is hoping a move into new markets will boost employment at the site.

He said: “We carry out operations in South East Asia, West Africa, Canada, Norway, Denmark and the UK, and we’re now starting to do work in Russia.

“We’ve got a contract this year to do three new structures in the Caspian Sea, we’ve also been awarded a very big contract for the Filanovsky oil field in the Northern Capsian by Lukoil, so we’ll be pretty busy out in Russia.”

The company is owned by global conglomerate Oil States, based in Houston, Texas.

Remotely operated underwater equipment is designed, built and tested at the company’s Barrow facility.

It is then used worldwide during the installation and decommissioning of offshore structures.

The equipment includes the Hydra-Lok pile swage connection system and the Latch-Lok levelling system.

Oil States MSC also carries out maintenance work with the repair of caissons, including camera surveys and caisson cleaning, and uses an abrasive water jet cutting system for decommissioning platforms, subsea structures and ad hoc specialist requirements such as down hole cutting.

Mr Jones believes this decommissioning and repair work could prove to be key to the company’s expansion.

He explained: “We use the swaging system to replace damaged caissons and insert a liner inside.

“We get a lot of work with that system mainly in the North Sea and as part if the expansion vision, I want to try and move that equipment and that service into South East Asia.

“With the cutting equipment, we’re currently working in South East Asia and the UK, and we are looking to expanding into the Gulf of Mexico.

“Typically with the hurricanes coming through they do get quite a bit of damage that needs repairing.

“There’s probably more work in that region than there is here in the UK.

“The North Sea in terms of decommissioning is very much in its infancy, whereas in the Gulf of Mexico they’ve been producing oil and gas there for quite some time so there’s more work in that region.

“We are looking to move equipment and support it with personnel from here, so we’ll still be operating from Cumbria in all these geographical regions.”

Mr Jones hopes any expansion will boost employment in Barrow.

He said: “We’ve just taken on two new engineers, so we’re trying to deal with the increased demand.

“As part of our plan to expand we’ll be putting a business case forward that will include more personnel and equipment.”

• For more on this story, see the next edition of in-Cumbria magazine, which will be available at the end of July.

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk