Russell Cutler, an expert with over 20 years experience in flow assurance modelling in the Oil & Gas industry, has been recruited to create and head up the flow assurance team within Ingen to service clients in Aberdeen and internationally.  A significant increase in the number of flow assurance projects, both in the UK and overseas, has prompted this investment, together with increasing our service offering by directly offering transient analysis using specialist simulation software.

The position is underpinned by the significant investment in specialist software, OLGA, to allow Ingen to carry out transient analysis of oil and gas pipelines in house. Operations Director Andy Robertson comments that, “This investment in the new position and software is a significant step change for Ingen in the improvement and delivery of our services.  The investment in OLGA and recruitment of Russell further underpins our commitment and ability to deliver successful flow assurance projects, from concept to production.

“Our objective is to grow this team in house and create a further five positions over the next year, which based on our current workload and increasing demands from the Middle East, is well within our reach.”

Ingen Ideas has recently made significant investment to improve process and flow assurance simulation capability by adding the OLGA transient simulation package to the current service offering, which includes HYSYS Dynamics and RAVE integrated asset modelling. The ability to manage transient analysis in house and to a very high standard has become a key component in the company’s ability to support fast track developments for key clients, and to reduce any potential delays in analysis. Ingen has already secured several orders for work with the new package and believes that this integrated capability will be a very attractive proposition for new and existing clients in the UK and internationally.

Technical Director Robbie Leask comments, "although we've offered a successful transient analysis management service for 10 years, using specialist suppliers, our company has now grown to a size where we are best placed to execute this work in-house.  This investment will reduce project interfaces, improve delivery schedules and be a vehicle to further support our engineers' personal development.  We also see it as a research tool to evaluate in-house development projects, for example in the area of Carbon Capture and Storage, where we've been heavily involved for the last four years."

Ingen Ideas have signed an agreement to provide state owned Qatar Petroleum with specialist engineering services for an on-shore oil and gas processing facility.  The contract is worth $1 million US dollars and is expected to last for nine months.  The project will require the work of fifteen Ingen Staff from not only their Aberdeen office, but also their Dubai office which was established in 2008.  This is Ingen’s second major client in the Middle East following on from their highly successful work with Dubai Petroleum.

Wayne Strachan, one of the Ingen Directors, offered this statement about the contract: ‘After operating successfully in Dubai for the last two years, we are very pleased to secure this additional contract with a new client in the region which will allow us to expand and grow.  We look forward to building Ingen’s good reputation in the area and accessing the significant opportunities which are currently available in the Middle East for our services.’

The contract is one of the largest ever one by the company to date and will involve the creation of a model of the entire offshore operating assets of the Dubai Petroleum Establishment using Ingens proprietary software RAVE^TM.

The contract is now in it's second phase after the completion and evaluation of a working prototype model with the full model to be completed by end February 2007.

The model will allow DPE to evaluate various projects across all of the fields and rank them in a consistent manner whilst bringing clarity to all of the complex interactions and the various value drivers.

The lessons are delivered  within the Ingen building and are freely available to all staff and are intended to.

Ingen director Robbie Leisk is particularily proud of this step taken by the company - "Ingen carry out work for a number of clients in the Norwegian sector and are committed to working in Norway in the long term.  With our plans to open a permament office in Norway it seemed logical to encourage the staff to develop our abilities in this area. Although the use of English is widespread in Norway and we do not see langauge as a barrier we believe that this further demonstrates our committment to this area".

The model will be built using Ingens proprietary software RAVE and will be used to evaluate the further development opportunities available to this asset.

The move to open a branch has been driven by the strong demand from our clients in the Middle East and Dubai in particular for us to establish a local presence and the great opportunities we see in this area for growth and our particular offering.

It is our intention to have our Dubai branch fully operational by the end of the first quarter 2008 and have already secured work on projects in advance of this opening.