Flotech engineers a unique solution for oil giant

26th May 2006

From Mangere to Mexico: Flotech engineers a unique solution for oil giant

Pioneering South Auckland based engineered solutions company Flotech provides major Gulf of Mexico oil project with an ingenious fix.

Flotech, a Mangere based engineered solutions company, has wrapped up another impressive large scale international project, delivering to Norwegian client Kanfa AS two utility compressors worth over USD$2 million for the massive Mexican State Owned Oil & Gas Co (PEMEX) KMZ oil project in the Gulf of Mexico.
Director of Compression Technology Stephen Rowntree says, ¡§When we first spoke to Kanfa they presented us with two significant challenges and were clearly looking for two separate solutions.

After careful analysis, it occurred to us that we could solve both challenges with a single packaged solution¡¨.

Over the following 32 weeks Flotech purpose designed and built in their Mangere workshop two enormous pieces of highly sophisticated gas compression equipment that individually perform two very different yet critical operations onboard the floating oil processing plant.

The utility compressors provide fuel gas boost for the power generation requirements on board, while simultaneously providing gas compression and exporting of the H2S rich acid gas from the amine plant. Flotech first became involved when asked by Kanfa to provide specialised compressors for a conversion of an oil tanker named the Berge Enterprise.

The Berge Enterprise has a storage capacity of over 2,000,000 barrels and will serve as a processing and transport hub for some 600,000 barrels per day, making it in terms of oil throughput the largest Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) in the world. Ship owners Norwegian shipping giant Bergesen will operate the FPSO for PEMEX and contracted Kanfa to refit the ships topside modules. When Kanfa encountered obstacles that required specialist compression technology, they turned to Flotech for its engineering ingenuity.

With significant revenue and staff growth over the last 36 months, Flotech has been quietly building an impressive global reputation as a customer-oriented provider of leading edge engineered solutions to the biogas, gas compression, and heat exchange industries. With more than 90% of their revenue now coming from exports, Flotech are a highly successful New Zealand business on the world stage.

Rowntree added, ¡§In many ways our size and location actually helps us. Our business survival in a global world requires us to be more adaptive and flexible to our customers needs than our global competitors can be. We are not a mass producer of standardized product. Instead, we focus on the best individual solution for each project, our goal being to meet all customer requirements and expectations. With the wide variety of projects we deal with, this invariably means listening to the client and tailoring a design to match their needs.¡¨

Flotech also has an impressive internationally flavoured line-up of engineering talent that enables it to conceptualise and develop complex solutions in-house, ¡§We have looked hard for the right people, and as a result we feel we have a diverse and talented team that matches anyone in the world.¡¨ Rowntree says.

In addition to the Gulf of Mexico project, Flotech is involved with many other international and leading edge projects, including being at the forefront of Sweden¡¦s recent drive to develop biogas as a realistic and large-scale commercial alternative to traditional fuels.

¡§We are always willing to talk to anyone in the biogas, gas compression, and heat exchange industries about their challenges, not just around the world, but here in New Zealand¡¨, said Rowntree, ¡§We understand and appreciate that leading edge engineering solutions can be a key part of enabling New Zealand businesses to succeed commercially¡¨.

Flotech's philosophy is to provide energy technologies that meet the requirements of modern society whilst preserving and enhancing the environment, to ensure continuous improvement by participation of every individual to the highest levels of Total Quality Management, and to remain competitive and profitable in providing for the well-being of the Company's staff, customers and stakeholders.

Since incorporation in 1986, Flotech has developed into an international industrial equipment supplier, offering solutions for ƒ{ƒnIndustrial Heat Exchange, ƒ{ƒnGas Purification, Drying and Conditioning - Gas Compression Flotech delivers custom-engineered equipment and ¡§turn-key¡¨ skid packaged process systems.

In the Gas Compression sector, Flotech¡¦s chief competitive strength is fuel gas delivery for power generation and transportation. Gas Treatment capability has been driven by development of biogas processing technology as an eco-friendly, sustainable and economically viable vehicle fuel. Natural synergies have developed along with the gas processing business and Flotech is a leading provider of Heat Exchanger technology. www.flotech.com

ENDS

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