Step Change Engineering scoops offshore contracts worth £500,000 after cutting client costs by 50%

Aberdeen-based Step Change Engineering has won a clutch of orders worth £500,000 after demonstrating its ability to cut the costs of offshore engineering work by 50%.

The eight-month old company said these orders are the direct result of operators demanding more efficient delivery mechanisms as they seek to reduce the cost of maintaining ageing assets.

Most of these orders are for minor brownfield modification projects, however the firm has also been approached to undertake larger multidiscipline projects.

Step Change Engineering is on target to turn over £1.5 million in 2015. The company currently has a workforce of 40 people, with all key personnel having ownership of the business.

Managing director John Wilson, said: “Over the past eight months we have witnessed the oil and gas industry reigning in its expenditure and the impact this has had on people and companies. 

“As an industry we need to work in partnership in order to sustain its future viability and operators have quite rightly started doing this by re-evaluating expenditure in order to reduce costs.

“The team at Step Change Engineering have reduced costs by 50% on minor modifications, with even greater schedule savings. We have also worked with operators to remove unnecessary activities and even scopes.”

Technical director Colin Bruce added: “We have invested heavily in our systems and processes to the point where we can now auto generate fabrication drawings with a full bill of materials.

“The whole process from offshore 3D scan to the start of fabrication is now hours rather than weeks.”

* Meanwhile, Aberdeen-based independent energy consultancy ADIL has become the only Scottish firm to make it into the Top 10 of the 100 fastest-growing mid-market businesses in the UK and Northern Ireland.

A report by specialist bank and asset management firm Investec assesses the performance of mid-market businesses over a four year period. ADIL’s growth, which saw turnover rise to £33.5milion last year, secured the company 10^th position in the prestigious list.

Overall representation of Scottish businesses on the list declined by 29% however, falling from seven to five. The highest rate of business growth was reported to be in north west England.

* The Wood Group has acquired BETA Machinery Analysis, a Canadian engineering consultancy  which specialises in advanced vibration analysis, in a deal valued at $14.3 million.

BETA’s expertise strengthens Wood Group’s capabilities and these services can be applied to field troubleshooting, monitoring and inspection of both greenfield and brownfield assets throughout the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas market.