Well Services B.V.

A positive outlook

Well Services B.V. is the Dutch parent company of both Coil Services B.V. and PNS Holding B.V. (Pipeline Nitrogen Services).

Within the business there are two primary trading streams – Coil Services B.V. and PNS Holding B.V.

Coil Services provides Coil Tubing, Slickline and Wireline services to the onshore and offshore oil and gas and petrochemical industry as well as the gas storage market. PNS offers four primary ranges of services – nitrogen services, including testing, drying, blowing, and all the standard nitrogen and other gas related services. Pipeline services, which include cleaning, drying, pigging, intelligent pigging and inspection services. Joint integrity services, including bolting and joint integrity management, software, engineering and calculations; and on site chemical cleaning, which includes decontamination of systems, processes and vessels.

Martin Dronfield, CEO of Well Services B.V., elaborates on the history of the two divisions: “Coil Services B.V. was initially set up in Emmen, in the Netherlands, in 2005, and PNS was established two years later. The two businesses operate out of the same building and in many areas co-operate extremely closely. They use much the same pool of equipment, a very similar pool of labour, and share the same centralised back office services.

“Increasingly we are closing the gap between the two companies as there is a huge similarity in the type of services that both companies offer, and the equipment and labour required to do so. Very simply we continue to consider ways to consolidate equipment, labour and competencies to save our customers money.”

The services provided by the Well Services Group include the use of Coil Tubing units and large-scale nitrogen pumping units along with other large value capital plant. Nearly all the group’s equipment is less than three years old and is designed for dual on and offshore use. It is built to the highest possible specifications, and conforms to all of the latest statutory and industry requirements. Due to its entrepreneurial investment approach Well Services’ equipment is safer, more reliable and provides a better working environment for its operators than any of its rivals company’s equipment.

The company’s pumping equipment also has on and offshore capability and provides enhanced delivery of fluids through pump units of up to 400 HHP each, along with storage facilities for fluids, chemicals for stimulation services and lab testing facilities for treatments. Finally, Well Services’ nitrogen equipment, which is also fully portable between on and offshore use, can be used for all services where an inert gas is required and where non-explosive gas mixtures are preferable for safety reasons.

The group offers a wide range of services, including pipeline chemical cleaning, ethylene pipeline pigging, mechanical pigging programs, testing and drying and all nitrogen-related services including helium leak testing and reactor cool-downs. The company has worked on South Hook LNG at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, Wales, carrying out the blowing and pigging as part of the pre-commissioning, a project that included pipeline camera inspections. “Our customers cover a broad range,” explains Martin. “We serve international oil companies, national oil companies through to tier one and tier two contractors, and everyone in between. We also carry out a lot of work for gas transmission companies, such as Gasunie and National Grid.”

He goes on to outline the company’s main competitive strengths: “Our services to the LNG arena are an area we’re particularly pleased about. We’re also extremely proud of our fleet of equipment, having invested 40 million euros over the last five years in a Europe-leading fleet of coil tubing units and nitrogen pumping units. As a result of this focused investment, we believe our fleet of equipment is now bigger than any other similar company in Europe. This gives our customers an enhanced level of reliability, professionalism and control in the services we offer, as well as records of the work that we’ve carried out, all at no extra cost.”

The business recently finished a huge project with Dragon Oil to provide services for its LNG terminal in Milford Haven, in Wales. Martin comments on the LNG market, a future focus area for the company: “LNG is certainly a growing market. Across the world LNG remains an important growth area for energy supply. There are currently new build LNG terminals springing up all over the world, in areas such as the Middle East, Qatar, Western Australia and even mainland Europe.

“The company has already made its mark in the oil and gas industry and because we are always prioritising quality and efficiency I believe the group is able to look forward to positive prospects in the future”.

Well Services B.V. as a group has a forecasted 2010 turnover of 45 million euros and deals with IOC’s, NOC’s and tier one and two contracting companies. Outlining the future for the company, Martin forecasts continued aggressive growth: “We will carry on expanding in our main market areas. Over the next few years our business will grow exponentially, we’ve set ourselves a group target of 200 million euros by the end of 2015. This growth will be fuelled of course through organic means in our current territories, geographic expansion into new territories, by the acquisition of good fitting businesses and through the introduction of additional services. As for Coil Services and PNS in the future, I want to deliver a company that can become a leader in its field, typified by quality services and state of the art reliable equipment”.

Well Services B.V.
Services: Coil tubing, slickline services, wireline services, nitrogen services, process & pipeline services, joint integrity management services, bolting services, chemical cleaning and decontamination services