BMZ BV
Growing potential
Ideally situated in the Haarlem region of the Netherlands, with easy access to the North Sea and beyond, BMZ is able to serve major oil and gas operators with bespoke applications for a range of needs and processes.
Founded in 1968 the company functioned primarily as a fabricator of mechanised applications for wider industry, until it changed its focus to concentrate purely on the offshore and petrochemical markets nearly two decades ago. With a specialisation, and considerable experience, in the fabrication of pressure vessels, separators, pig traps, flow lines, risers, subsea spools and structural work for platforms, skids, clamps, risers defenders and mooring solutions, it is no surprise that the company holds key contracts with large operators, such as Wintershall, Chevron and Total, and contractors like CB&I, IV Oil& Gas, Bluewater, Heerema and Allseas.
Though a relatively small company with an employee level of 25, BMZ is able to facilitate all of the large customers on the Dutch side of the North Sea, as Maarten Sudmeier explains: “Our main asset lies in the fact that we are moderately small compared to some of our competitors, as this makes us highly flexible and dynamic. This is especially important to major clients, such as Wintershall, who benefit from the fact that if they experience a problem on one of their platforms we can help them within a few hours, because we have the capability to carry out welding and construction, as well as holding our own fully equipped machine shop. This means that if they need replacement flanges, for example, we can make them instantly in an array of different materials. This range of ability within the highly competitive oil and gas industry is our biggest strength.”
BMZ does not hold a stock of its own products but functions purely as a tailor-made solution provider for the oil and gas industry, either building solutions-based industry standard components or to customers’ specifications. BMZ is also able to carrying out engineering on items such as pressure equipment in accordance with ASME, BS, Dutch Pressure Equipment Code or EN 13445. Clients always receive a personalised quality service, day or night. Though the business is able to take on projects with a diverse range of needs, its reputation in the industry is based on its superior ability in qualified welding services. Maarten explains: “We are known for our welding capability and most of our turnover is achieved in this area, specifically on spools and pressure holding equipment. We work to ASME, AWS and EN welding standards to produce high quality static equipment and structures and more recently, vacuum insulated equipment for our development into the cryogenic (LNG) field.”
Most recently BMZ has been involved in a refit on the K13 alpha platform in the Dutch North Sea. Though the platform is now only used for transporting purposes, the company was contracted to fabricate and test a large 36-inch PIG receiver with an unloading station and automated handling facility. In contrast, the organisation has also completed contracts from Bluewater for its new FPSO, the Aoka Mizu. Apart from some skids, BMZ fabricated key parts of the buoy clamping system, involving the fabrication, machining and testing of nine large mooring arms to connect the FPSO to its buoy. Each arm weighed in at about 18 tonnes. It seems that despite the current economical climate, BMZ has no difficulty finding work.
Maarten describes his current experience of the market: “We still have a lot of work partly because it is the offshore season at the moment, so everyone is busy. We are engineering ourselves to take on different and more diverse lines of employment. For example, we are providing more skid-mounted packages and we’re currently producing a number of metering skids for a range of clients. For instance we have one being delivered in the next few weeks for use in Oman and we are also producing our first helicopter refuelling skid for another key customer.”
He adds: “Though we are predominantly based in and serve clients in Holland, with products such as process packages, big on-and-offshore pigging solutions and mooring equipment, our solutions are used all over the world. The product swivels of most of the SPM buoys produced by Bluewater throughout the world have been made by BMZ and the Sakhalin I arctic loading tower in Siberia that is made up of some of our components, such as a large 48-inch PIG receiver; our potential in the market is huge. We have plans to expand in the future especially in the fields of LNG and low temperature liquid applications, though we have to be cautious as after the high season there will inevitably be a low period to experience before we can move forward. Our long-term plan is to increase our turnover and company size by up to 30 per cent in the coming years.”
BMZ BV
Products: Bespoke mechanical applications