Interview: WeSubsea Raises the Bar

WeSubsea, a subsea service company located in Norway and UK, has reported a very busy 2016, filled with lots of activities and accomplishments.

Enough reasons for Dredging Today to catch up with Mr. Jason Wilson, UK WeSubsea Managing Director, to review the business highlights from 2016 and discuss the impact they project for 2017.

DTLet’s begin by introducing your company to our readers?

Mr. Wilson: WeSubsea was founded in 2010 and are well established in the oil capitals of Kristiansund – Norway, Aberdeen – UK and a global locations through strategic partnerships with J2 Subsea, Seatronics and Frontier Subsea.

With more than 30 years of experience and knowledge in the offshore and subsea industry, we are able to take our expertise and market leading equipment and easily familiarize ourselves with our customer’s needs. Our technology is carefully designed for both quick mobilization and reliable operation.

WeSubsea focus on delivering safe and reliable products with superior performance that has been well proven in the harsh offshore environment. WeSubsea’s experience in working with dredging technology’s that have exceeded our clients’ demands and allowed the company to diversify and bring its knowledge into other areas of the ROV offshore market.

Whether a requirement is for ISO/API standard intervention tools or for a custom project, WeSubsea delivers products that perform consistently in the most demanding, hostile, deep water environments worldwide.

DTWhen you look back at 2016, did it live up to your expectations and how satisfied are you with the company’s business results?

Mr. Wilson: Based on the market, we were pleased with business result which were generally what was expected. Big changes within the industry required creative solutions and a reactive approach to our customer’s needs.

No longer did we see just a few big player in the market but some small to medium companies with growing opportunities emerging.

The slowing market allowed strategic discussions with new customers in diverse markets, allowed WeSubsea to develop new solutions which play on our key strengthens, some of which will be released in the future.

DT: Which markets are currently in the focus of WeSubsea, and do you have plans to expand your business areas?

Mr. Wilson: WeSubsea are already well represented in strategic global locations but still feel there are some “uncovered” marked to aim for (Africa/Russia). We are continuing to grow and develop our relationship with current partners, J2, Seatronics and Frontier Canada which has seen an ever increasing demand for WeSubsea equipment globally.

We are continually work on development our products and services while focusing on seeking growth opportunities with further complementary partners, news for the future!

DT: In the last couple of years, WeSubsea has released several innovative ROV Dredging solutions. Can you share some insight on this and maybe name a few models?

Mr. Wilson: WeSubsea are the market leaders in dredging technology with the most powerful dredger of their kind, fact!

Our extensive knowledge and expertise has allowed us to bring to the market our range of HC systems for ROV and diver operation. These systems have been very well received by our growing customer’s base and have taken dredging performance to a new level. Our main focus has always been to provide the best performance for low power inputs and to keep the system as compact and light weight as possible.

We are proud to say we have achieved all of this and more. For those not to familiar with dredgers of this kind, the only relevant factor to achieve high removal and suction rates is the max water flow through the dredger.

WeSubsea technology have allowed us to continually push this higher, giving the incredible results you see here. For instance, our 4” HC system has a max flow rate of 4867LPM and our 10” HC system is able to achieve over 20,000LPM, this is higher than any other systems of its kind on the market today and in some cases double what our competitors can achieve. This is even more incredible when you take in to account WeSubsea are able achieve this using less power than our competitors and with system that only weigh 32KG (4”) and 75KG (10”) in water.

At WeSubsea, we talk a lot about efficiency, performance and focusing on having the “most powerful” systems available. This we are able to accomplish after years of careful development and testing. Allowing our systems to have a much lower power consumption but still give unmatched performance.

DT: What can you tell us about the company’s current plans for the dredge sector, are there any new developments coming up, new products or services?

Mr. Wilson: WeSubsea are always looking at ways to improve and expand our capabilities and have continued to extend our range of Dredgers and jetting/fluidising system. We now offer a complementary range of jetting/fluidising systems to match our dredgers. This allowing us to tackle all seabed types including heavy clay efficiently.

We have developed our new pile dredging system and successfully completed projects in China and the GOM. Our new system has surpassed our own and our customers’ expectations in performance and reliability. We are able to carry out pile dredging (soil plug removal) operations more efficiently with less equipment and personnel giving our customer a more cost effective solution.

The project in the GOM was completed 3 days early which our client attributed directly to our new system. Where in the past these operations have been carried out with big heavy equipment based on that old adage “bigger is better”.

WeSubsea have focused on using our market leading knowledge and dredging technology to offer a new approach which has proven to reduce costs and the need for lifting and handling of heavy equipment.

DT: And what about your event calendar for 2017?

Mr. Wilson: WeSubsea will be on stand 83 at Subsea Expo in Partnership with J2 Subsea where you will be able to see our dredger up close and talk directly with our UK Managing Director.

We are in discussion with our partners to attend strategic shows globally throughout the year and have already booked our stand for OE17.

DT: What are WeSubsea’s most important goals and business plans for 2017, in which fields will you focus the most?

Mr. Wilson: The main focus for 2017 is to continue to work closely with our customer and supply the most cost effective solution while still focusing on quality, efficiency and reliability.

Seeking new growth opportunity in global markets and expanding our technology in to new areas outside the oil and gas industry.