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Chamber to the rescue for ThinJack

Westhill-based business gets Angolan contract at the last moment

ThinJack is a North Sea success story based on knowledge, technical innovation and determination.

Guy Bromby, a founding director of the Westhill-based company, had spent around 150 man hours over four months on the task. He had been given assistance by his MP Sir Robert Smith, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and UK Trade and Investment but in spite of their efforts had been unable to obtain the visa which was mandatory to allow him to fulfil the firm’s first contract in Angola.

At the 11th hour, literally, he made a call to the mobile of the Chamber’s global Mr Fixit, Jon Woodwards, the International Business Director -”Could he help get the Visa?” “It just so happens that I am in Angola and hosting a reception tonight at which the people who might be able to sort that out are guests,” said Jon.

Jon, on a Chamber trade mission to the Angolan capital Luanda, explained the position to the relevant people and arranged for Mr Bromby to call them the following day. With hours to spare the visa arrived and ThinJack was able to complete the contract successfully for a major operator in Angola, which has led to further potential work in the African republic.

Thinjack is named after the hydraulic jacking and separating system which is capable of exerting hundreds of tonnes of force – an area around the size of a thumbnail can raise three tonnes – and its value in the oil industry is becoming widely recognised. It can replace traditional techniques of separating corroded flanges.

After years in the other harsh environments, many components which now need replacing have fused together as a result of corrosion or internal friction and a lack of lifting or pulling power to separate these compounds the problem and can result in shut downs and delays costing millions.

ThinJack overcomes these problems, and it was on a train journey in Norway in February 2004 that the idea which has become a commercial success was conceived by Guy Bromby and Alastair MacDonald, acquaintances on their way to the same job.

The company was started in 2005 but it took two years to develop the technology to the level they wanted for launch.

They admit that because of the reluctance of companies to try new, untested technology, it was only when two oil majors decided to call on them as a “last resort” that they established their credibility. They now operate in Australia, where last year the company opened an office, the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa and the North Sea. The bulk of their UK work is in the East Shetland Basin but 87% of their contracts are now overseas.

As they were trying to overcome the challenges of entering the Angolan market the small team of five – which is expected to grow this year – was also involved in operations around the world and Guy’s wife Lesley, a director of the company, showed indomitable spirit by hand delivering vital parts from a supplier in Norway to the freight carrier at Charles de Gaulle airport to ensure the Angolan job was able to go ahead.

Only two weeks earlier that same spirit had overcome a lack of transport as a result of the Icelandic volcanic ash. In another race against the clock she hitchhiked down through Norway, took a ferry to Denmark and then managed to get a lift through Germany to the delivery point at Den Helder in the Netherlands.

“The customer couldn’t believe it,” said her husband, “he said ‘she has used every form of transport except the bicycle - and we will learn her that.’”