STATS Group has recently invested approximately £2 million (US$2.5 million) in a new premises and associated infrastructure to support its growth plans in the Americas. STATS has expanded onto a larger premises in Edmonton, Canada and is now manufacturing and assembling a range of its patented isolation tools in-country, available for sale to clients or on a project basis.
Expanded facilities
The new facilities allow STATS to assemble, manufacture, support and test a larger number of components and tools in Canada, allowing a quicker and more efficient turnaround for the end-user. STATS Regional Director for the Americas Stephen Rawlinson says the new investments underlined the company’s commitment to the Canadian energy and utilities sector.
“Traditionally, we have provided our industry-leading technology and services to clients on a rental basis but the introduction of product sales has proved extremely popular,” says Mr Rawlinson.
“This is really driving sustainable growth in our Canadian business, despite overall negativity in the Canadian oil and gas industry due to a lack of pipeline market access. This natural extension of our strategy gives customers immediate access to our equipment, and our portfolio has been strongly endorsed by major players in the sector as tried, tested and trusted technologies.”
Delivering solutions
One leading North American gas utility has taken possession of a package of equipment including STATS’ patented BISEP isolation tools, slab valves and SureTap hot tapping machines, while another well-known pipeline company has added a selection of large diameter BISEPs and slab valves to its inventory.
STATS’ success in Canada has been mirrored in onshore US projects and Gulf of Mexico scopes with the Houston team, led by President and General Manager Scott McNae, expected to substantially increase its local workforce by the end of 2019. In the US, the company has been engaged by several major operators on an increasing number of complex intervention projects, which delivered isolation results not previously achieved by rival technologies.
New market opportunities
A buoyant US market, where clients are upgrading or replacing ageing infrastructure to improve output and extend asset life, has opened up new opportunities for STATS in the mid and northern states in the US as well as in downstream Gulf of Mexico projects.
“The market is in good health and we have been able to respond to this buoyancy by supporting small to large diameter pipeline projects with technologies which offer more robust isolations than previously available,” says Mr McNae.
“Our BISEP range is now a mature technology which offers a safer, fully tested and monitored double block and bleed isolation, that is now increasingly being used in the market as the go-to solution. On Gulf of Mexico scopes, we have rolled out our BISEP and subsea hot-tapping capability, building up a strong track record of delivering incident free, cost efficient results.”
This article was featured in October Edition of Pipelines International. To view the magazine on your PC, Mac, tablet, or mobile device, click here.
For more information visit the STATS Group website.
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