Interview: Namaka Subsea Eyes Global Growth

Subsea World News team met with some of the industry players during Subsea Expo 2017 – Europe’s largest subsea focused exhibition and conference.

On the day two of the event, held at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, we set up an interview with Sandy Harper, managing director of Aberdeen-based consulting company, Namaka Subsea.

During our short talk, Harper explained what the company is about, Namaka’s recently secured 5-year contract with one of the UK North Sea operators, and what regions is the company looking at for its future expansion plans.

Tell us a little bit more what you do, what is the company involved with?

We’re involved in most subsea consulting requirements. We’ve set the company up primarily to assist with diving and ROV operations, to try and develop the industry forward with safer and more efficient operations.

Our main clients are both the contractors and the operators alike, so we’ve got a selection of clients from some of the big oil & gas producers to some of the big ROV and diving contractors as well. We’ve been operating now for just over two and a half years. We’ve also got DiveCert a certification, asset management and planned maintenance software system specifically designed for the diving industry.

Although we’re an Aberdeen-based company, we’ve got clients both on the software side of the business and consulting globally.

This year’s event will be looking to adjust the industry, what are you looking to get out of the exhibition?

A bit more exposure to the company, a lot more networking and try bring in a few more clients. It’s perfect timing for us, we’ve just been awarded a 5-year contract with one of the big o&g producers, so the award came at a good time with the Expo and there’s been a lot of buzz about Namaka Subsea because of that. This is the second year we’ve been at the Expo. Last year Subsea UK were kind enough to give us one of the pods for free, so this year obviously, it’s our turn to support the Expo and we’ve taken a stand.

The industry body Subsea UK is encouraging the companies to expand and diversify internationally, what markets are you aiming at?

Currently Asia is probably going to be one of our biggest markets that we’re aiming at. Two reasons, I’ve spent a lot of time in Asia, I know there’s a big market out there and I enjoy operating out there. Secondly, one of our biggest competitors is based in Asia so we would like to go out and see if we can go head-to-head with them as well. So Asia is a big one. We attended the Subsea Asia in December, which was very good, we met a lot of new people there, picked up some new clients, and picked up a project while we were out there as well so we went straight from Singapore to Malaysia to carry out a project on the back of Subsea Asia.

What does the new contract award with still undisclosed UK North Sea operator mean for the company?

For us it means we can develop further as a company. We’ve got a plan in place to bring more resources to the company, both operationally and technically, so it gives us a chance to bring in additional personnel to assist running the operations which is probably the main focus this year, namely identify key personnel to bring into office to assist with running the operation so I can take a step back and deal a bit more with the client and business development. The contract not only helps us develop the company further but also gives us bigger exposure to the industry globally.

What are the next steps for your company, what can we expect from Namaka Subsea in the future?

Namaka Subsea is going to continue growing. We’re both within the UK and overseas. Our main focus is ensuring that we can secure the UK market as well as within Europe. Moving ahead, we’ll be looking at offices in Asia and the Middle East. We’re in the process of amending our 5-year plan to show obviously, the development of offices within Asia and the Middle East.

Middle East expansion?

We’re in discussions with one of the big operators. They’re interested in the software, but also interested in other services we can provide. We’re hoping that by the middle of this year we should have that contract secured as well. That will enable us to open an office in the Middle East.