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People

Spotlight

By Elaine Maslin and integrated product lines.”

Proserv is looking to do something a bit different, not competing for EPC con-

Sewing seeds tracts with the larger players. This means

We’re in tough times, but environment, one which is very differ- focusing on more modest, potentially ent to the one Lamont ? rst joined in marginal projects that need a lower cost that also means there’s an

Aberdeen. “It was boom time [then]. solution, as well as brown? eld projects, opportunity to seek new

Every pub had kit bags stacked high out- need alternatives to tearing out the old side as people came back onshore. They and replacing them with the new. solutions, according to Proserv’s were wild days and too wild in many As an example, Proserv has worked

David Lamont. Elaine Maslin ways. It was extremely entrepreneurial, to develop ways to retro? t multiphase went to hear the CEO’s views.

maybe a bit gung-ho sometimes, but we monitoring, subsea electronics modules, have gone through a period of the indus- sensors and even cameras, so ROVs don’t n 1982, a young(er) David Lamont left his try maturing.” have to be deployed. It

I home country, Australia, and travelled to

Safety and planning has developed a way

Aberdeen to join an industry in the midst are better today, he says, to add communica- of a major boom. The idea was to stay for but, after a period in the tions through existing two years then go back to Australia. 1990s, where operators communications lines.

Like many who come to the North Sea, collaborated to help And the ? rm continues his ? rst visit wasn’t to be his last. After bring projects like high- to look for new solu- travelling the world with Schlumberger, pressure, high-temper- tions, evidenced by the engineering graduate soon found his ature ? elds, complex its recent purchase of feet in business management, both in geological ? elds, or through-water acoustic and out of Schlumberger. He co-founded smaller marginal ? elds communications and

Omega Completion Technology, helped on stream, with appro- control ? rm Nautronix.

Schlumberger re-organize its well comple- priate risk sharing, Despite the environ- tions and productivity business in Russia, some of that appetite ment the industry is and rebuilt ABB Vetco Gray, as it was then, was lost, he says. While in, Lamont is positive, before helping oversee the sale of Vetco a move was made from seeing the opportunity

International to GE Oil & Gas in 2007. bespoke design to for improvement and

A man unafraid of trying something standardization, this for marginal devel-

David Lamont Photo from Proserv.

different, he also spent just under a year resulted in the highest opments. “It is not out from the oil business as director of standard products being chosen, often a great period for anyone, but I liken it marketing & sales at Virgin Direct in unnecessarily – i.e. gold-plating – says some seeds which will only germinate

Norwich, the city he now calls home. Lamont. While outsourcing engineers after going through a bush ? re,” he says.

Now, however, he is more than four worked up to a point, when they were “All companies need to think how to do years into helming Proserv – a relatively integrated into the operators, using day things differently, we can’t just revert new brand with some strong oil? eld raters hasn’t help align goals or achieve back to the way we were working.” heritage. After working for the big ? rms – the best, most ef? cient outcomes. “We Creating better working partnerships

Vetco, ABB, Schlumberger – he’s found a lost that alignment from 2000-2013, and with operators will also help the indus- smaller ? rm with a niche, a niche which th at’s why, in 2011 we brought together try. As an example, Proserv was signed could come into its own in today’s low Proserv. We could see costs were escalat- up as a subsea partner by MOL Group, oilprice environment. ing, particularly for marginal ? elds.” which has no North Sea operating assets, “Coming from bigger companies with

Lamont joined Proserv in 2011, joining but is keen to learn from and work with greater technology and capability, we saw some ex-colleagues from Vetco, at which the supply chain. and still see a need for companies provid- point the company had been more like a Crucially, making sure the business is ing ? t for purpose solutions, at a lower “federation of companies.” These out? ts the right size for today’s market, while cost and more reliable and faster,” he says. were consolidated and brought under one also recruiting talent, is a challenge, but “It means taking a much more ‘service’ brand, Proserv, with “a common platform, it has to be done for the future of the approach than a manufacturing approach.” common ownership, and a common direc- business, he says. The wider industry

The approach matches today’s tion with a global management structure should take note.

December 2015 | OE oedigital.com 62 062_OE1215_Spotlight.indd 62 11/20/15 5:17 PM