FourQuest Energy
It hasn’t taken long for FourQuest Energy to extend its influence all over the globe. Even though the company has been operating only since early 2008, the Edmonton-based oil and gas services company has operations in United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan. Vice President of Sales and Marketing and co-founder Karl Gannon says the company has taken the opposite approach of many similar firms by seeking out areas where the competition is stiff, not only because the competition keeps it on its toes, but also because FourQuest Energy offers something different. The fact that there is a lot of competition in itself proves that there is plenty of work available.
“We all came from an international service company, and we’re no different than any other entrepreneurial company in our reason for starting our own company that we thought that we could do it better,” Gannon says.
FourQuest Energy does it better than the competition by offering the complete line of mechanical pre-commissioning services which along with its in-depth engineering support, differentiates it from the vast majority of its competitors, Gannon explains. Additionally, the company’s strength in the engineering side of the business allows it to be a much more involved partner for its customers in the oil and gas industry. But providing the foundation for all of that technical expertise is the company’s philosophy of professionalism in every aspect of its dealings. Gannon says quality and customer satisfaction are the two most important things to FourQuest Energy, and that has gone a long way to building the company up to where it is today in such a short time.
“The idea is that the clients will invite us back again and again and again, this is the best reference we could ask for,” Gannon says.
Unique Service
Although there are many other companies that provide the services FourQuest Energy does, those services are often spread out among multiple companies, and in only a few occasions are they consolidated in one place. Gannon says clients in the oil and gas industry are looking more frequently for a single source to provide them with all of their pre-commissioning and maintenance needs.
This is what makes FourQuest Energy’s depth of services a true advantage in the marketplace, Gannon explains. The company’s integrated service platform includes steam blowing, air blowing,oil flushing, fluid pumping, nitrogen services, filtration, heating and chemical cleaning. This makes the company a one-stop shop for its customers.
But FourQuest Energy’s involvement doesn’t begin simply with putting the tools to the equipment. The company’s engineering prowess has given it a unique level of sophistication in an industry where old-school thinking still dominates. “It’s the full array of pre-engineered mechanical services augmented by our engineering strength,” Gannon says, adding that its engineering capabilities allow the company to get involved in the design phase of a project and discover potential problems before they have a chance to impact the schedule.
“We do feel that we offer a unique service, if the pre-engineering is addressed in the early stages of a project the savings made alone by the reduction in remedial work can actually cover the cost of the pre-commissioning field execution,” he says.
Around the World
Another aspect of the company that has fueled its success is its focus on international markets. Whereas other service companies try to find areas where competition is light, FourQuest Energy dives right into crowded markets because of the challenges they represent. “We do like competition because it keeps us lean,” Gannon says.
The company’s strategy of expanding into international markets was founded in an attempt simply to help keep consistency in the company’s revenue, but recent activity has helped it pay off in surprising ways, according to Gannon. Five to 10 years ago, he says, the trend in the oil and gas industry was for one region of the world to be very busy while most other regions were relatively quiet. FourQuest Energy expanded to multiple regions early on with the strategy of relying on one busy region to balance out the less-intense areas.
However, in the last year or so, Gannon and the company have noticed that most regions of the world are booming at the same time, giving FourQuest Energy a lot of work everywhere it operates. “I’ve never seen it so busy across the globe, so every region is going through a hydrocarbon boom right now,” he says.
Keeping Focus
Nevertheless, Gannon says FourQuest Energy is careful to avoid losing focus as it takes advantage of the work available around the world. Sticking with the company’s plan of focusing on quality and building strong relationships with repeat customers will continue to be FourQuest Energy’s focus in the coming years. “If you try to chase too many falling apples, you can end up catching none,” Gannon says.
Along with focusing on quality, this is further proven with the company’s recent ISO9000:2008 accreditation; FourQuest will concentrate on smart expansion in the years to come. Gannon says the company is looking at further expansions in North America along with the opening of more regions globally with areas of growing hydrocarbon activity. The company also plans to move its corporate offices to London in the summer of 2012 to provide a more centralized location for its administration and, moreover, a better time zone for supporting an international company, according to Gannon.