The launch of a new Aberdeen-headquartered service provider to the energy sector has started with the acquisition of two long-established north east businesses.
Aurora Energy Services has bought Huntly-based offshore services and fabrication company R&M Engineering, following on from its first acquisition in December 2022 of rope access and training business Inverness Access Training Services (IATS).
All jobs at IATS and R&M Engineering have been secured, and in the next 12 months Aurora expects to increase its current headcount of around 80 to 200, as it rolls out a programme of strategic acquisitions and invests more capital in organic growth.
Aurora’s plan is to create a £100m turnover energy services provider over the next five years by continuing to provide services to oil and gas, while in parallel driving forward with the energy transition by targeting the wind, solar, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, pumped hydro and waste-to-energy sectors.
As part of the energy transition, Aurora will develop three business streams: firstly, renewables services including inspection, repair and maintenance, engineering and installation support; secondly, training and accreditation, providing the opportunity for the oil and gas workforce to add new skills; and finally, design engineering, fabrication and site installation, initially in oil and gas, but transitioning to provide the same services to the renewables sector.
Owned by energy sector entrepreneurs Doug Duguid and Michael Buchan through their I7V Renewables investment fund, capital has also been invested by Aurora’s senior management, including Alan McLean - who has been with R&M for over 30 years. They are joined by Alan Bailey, who has been appointed as the new managing director at R&M, and who previously worked alongside Duguid and Buchan at EnerMech for 12 years.
R&M Engineering is one of the largest fabricators of pipework and structural steelwork in the north east of Scotland and has provided fabrication services to the oil and gas industry for more than 40 years. The business has already started the transition to renewables, winning a number of offshore wind contracts, and its 6.5 acre Huntly site will be central to Aurora’s expansion plans.
IATS co-owners, Andy and Lorna Johnston, will remain with the new entity and have also invested in Aurora, as it strengthens rope access, inspection and technical training credentials with the opening of a new 11,000 sq ft site in the Longman area of Inverness.
The Renewable Energy Training Centre - a £750,000 investment - will also offer safety training and technical courses for onsite renewables operations, and re-skilling programmes for workers looking to transition into renewables sector jobs.
The Inverness site is also Aurora’s Wind Energy service centre, delivering project engineering for onshore and offshore wind work - and will be the Highland’s first Global Wind Organisation (GWO) accredited safety and technical training centre when it opens in June this year.
A particular focus of the Inverness centre will be to deliver specialised blade inspection and repair courses - and Engineering Construction Industry Training Board-controlled bolting - both of which will go beyond the level of the GWO basic technical training.
Aurora is investing in developing a full design engineering function at its headquarters in Aberdeen, which will incorporate a digital capability for customers to access real time progress on all aspects of the work Aurora is carrying out for them. The design engineering team will support the Inverness renewables service centre and the Huntly fabrication facilities, while further expansion will take place in Blyth and Great Yarmouth over the next few months.
Duguid, I7V Renewables chief executive, said: “It is clear from conversations with wind farm developers and original equipment manufacturers that there is some frustration with having to manage the various interfaces between different contractors, and the increased costs and inefficiency that this causes.
“Aurora will be focused on providing localised support to our customers - and by developing our own workforce, as well as working closely with our customers to optimise work planning and execution, we will ensure that our operations are streamlined; minimising both the cost of our services and our carbon footprint.“
He continued: “We have listened closely to the needs of both our renewable and oil industry customers who want their contractors to focus on minimising emissions and extending the life extension of energy assets, component refurbishment, and in cases where the former is not practicable, recycling.
“We see tremendous value in transitioning Scotland’s energy base and workforce towards more renewable sources, and at the same time utilising the immense offshore knowledge and experience from Scotland’s oil and gas industry, and applying this to the new energy sources which will keep Scotland at the leading edge of energy production.”
Duguid and Buchan were co-founders of oil and gas services company EnerMech. Over a 10-year period, the start-up completed 17 acquisitions, employed 4,000 employees in 23 countries, and grew revenues to £415m and earnings to £50m, exiting the business in a more than £400m sale to Carlyle Group in December 2018.
Previously Duguid led a management buy-out of PSL Energy Services in 2003 and over four years grew revenue from £20m to £110m, with 1,200 employees, achieving a significant return for institutional shareholders when the business was acquired by Halliburton in 2007.
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