Aberdeen Subsea Company opens Kuala Lumpur Base

The move by Flexlife to establish a hub in Kuala Lumpur is part of the company's strategy to expand into key locations for the oil & gas industry and generate additional sales.

Flexlife will open a second international base in Brazil within the first half of this year.

Flexlife director of sales and marketing Carl-Petter Halvorsen said: "We have ambitious plans to develop our business and tap into the market that exists for our ground-breaking products and services.

"We believe there are major opportunities for us in Asia Pacific and we see Kuala Lumpur as an excellent point from which to access the entire region. Establishing a local presence will help us build new business relationships and increase the levels of work we do with existing clients. The Asia Pacific region is a growing market for FPSOs and they are the main users of flexible pipe so it is important to us to have someone there on the ground.''

The company was established in 2007, has a number of major industry and business awards under its belt and is in the running for two Scottish Offshore Achievement Awards. The 30-strong team has completed work for clients including Apache North Sea, Hess, Statoil and Maersk in the North Sea and international locations. Turnover to April 2010 is forecast to be approximately £6million.

Flexlife specialises in delivering flexible pipe projects and subsea integrity management. As part of its portfolio, Flexlife offers a range of patented solutions to many of the most common problems facing the subsea sector, including ultrasonic scanning technology to pinpoint failures in flexible pipe.

Flexlife's breakthrough ultrasonic scanning technology is the first to be able to successfully scan the annulus of flexible risers and flowlines in situ with 100% accuracy. The application can detect specific locations of any flooding and scan the armour wires around flexibles to an accuracy of 0.1mm.

The data has proven extremely difficult to obtain in situ in the past and Fexlife's application can be used by operators to plan maintenance work. It also helps minimise additional cost, personnel and environmental impact for clients.

Flexlife will have scanning equipment based in Kuala Lumpur to support clients' flexible pipe needs. The company has already carried out work for Inpex and Premier Oil in the region.

Business Development Manager Azmir Ahmed, who will lead the team at the 1,500sqft premises in Kuala Lumpur, comes from a background in flexible pipe manufacturing.