Sunderland-based Haskel Europe wins contracts across the globe

Haskel Europe has won new contracts in the growing oil and gas industry in Angola, Dubai and Kazakhstan, from clients which turned to the Sunderland company because of its expertise in producing equipment that can operate in high pressure environments.

Haskel now exports to more than 50 countries and overseas sales made up 56 per cent of its business last year. The success is down to a determined effort to find more markets for its products, managing director Stephen Learney said. 

“It’s increasing steadily year-on-year; exporting is where the higher growth opportunities are,” he said.

“In 2007 we decided we needed to increase activity in markets outside Western Europe. We are now seeing growth everywhere, but it is faster in our newer markets – West Africa, North Africa and the former Soviet Union.”

With its head office in Sunderland, where 62 of the company’s 81 staff work and its manufacturing operation is based, Haskel also has offices in France, Spain and Aberdeen – home of the UK’s oil and gas industry. 

A long-term relationship with US industry giant Baker Hughes’ staff in Aberdeen recently led to orders from the company’s offices in Dubai and Kazakhstan.

Mr Learney said: “We have sister companies involved in both those countries but it is because of our relationship with Baker Hughes in Aberdeen that they directly came to us.

“Baker Hughes in Aberdeen has been a customer for many years, in particular buying a helium gas booster product.

“The equipment is a strong seller for us. We sold 37 last year, which might not sound like a lot, but it is for something like this equipment.” 

Haskel’s products are designed very much to fill a valuable niche market. It is a world leader in the design and manufacture of high pressure pumps and valves that are vital pieces of kits for defence and energy companies as well as the oil and gas sector.

Built to work at very high operating pressures, its products are important tools to both maintain and check safety standards at oil and gas operations on and offshore.

Mr Learney said: “The demand for helium pressure tests has been increasing because of the changes in safety concerns and industry standards. We sell it to many customers around the world.” 

Although the Baker Hughes contract was a repeat order of a popular line, much of Haskel’s work is bespoke or involves tweaking tried and tested designs to suit the environments that the equipment will be used in.

A new order which has given Haskel a foothold in the rapidly-growing oil and gas market in Angola involved environmentalising products to cope with conditions in the southern African country.

Sunderland-built air drive pumps and flushing rigs, which mimic what is happening at the bottom of the sea where the oil and gas is being extracted, were exported to Cameron Engineering in Angola.

Haskel Europe’s export manager Simon Calvert said:

“We adapted it to suit the environmental conditions in Angola where the temperatures are up to 55 degrees and the desert is trying to get into the workshop. In this case, there is a chilling and cooling system.

“Each customer has a different requirement and each will be interpreted differently; we tweak the products to meet the customers’ demands, although the majority of the equipment is designed and is available off the shelf within short lead times.”

Angola is one of the countries that Haskel had been targeting and it could become a valuable export destination. Its ‘block’ of the sea was opened up for oil and gas exploration a decade ago, and oil and gas is now responsible for around 60 to 70 per cent of the country’s exports.

“In Angola, there are very few other industries apart from oil and gas and diamond mining, and the oil and gas industry is growing exponentially,” said Calvert.

“Angola would probably be around one-fifteenth to one-twentieth of Haskel’s business and it’s growing. Five years ago, it accounted for very little.

“I would like it to be worth around £2m by 2015.”