IOS confirms commitment to North-east with £5.5million investment programme

IOS confirms commitment to North-east with £5.5million investment programme

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Independent Oilfield Services (IOS), Peterhead-based storage and inspection firm, is to invest
£5.5million in the North-east of Scotland over the coming months.
The company has already invested more than £4million in its state-of-the-art storage and inspection
facility at Longside Supply Base near Peterhead. In the first phase of this additional investment, the
company has bought its current 32-acre site on the former airfield for £2.5million.
The deal will be followed by further investment of around £3million which will create new jobs for
the local region with IOS’s plans for major expansion at the Longside facility.
Established in 2014, IOS has seen steady growth in turnover over the past year and, with a number of
new contracts wins secured, is forecasting a further 30% turnover increase over the next 12 months.
The company has leased the Longside site since it started up and was three years into a 10-year lease
before taking the decision to buy the land outright in order to support its future growth plans. IOS
retains a 15-year option to lease additional sites at Longside with potential to extend the facility to
100 acres.
Located just four miles from the quayside of Peterhead’s deepwater port, the Longside Supply Base
incorporates both hard-standing outdoor storage and internal warehouse storage. Current services
include OCTG, drillpipe and offshore inspection, equipment rental, transportation and tubular
management.
“The decision to buy the site confirms our long-term commitment to the area and our plans for on-
going investment in the region,” said Glynn Geddie, Managing Director at IOS. “We are a privately
owned company and through private funding we look forward to continued growth in this region.
“We opened the Longside facility in direct response to the shortage of industrial storage space in the
North-east and since then we have seen rapid growth in our customer base. Until we opened most
equipment and tubulars had to be transported considerable distances by road to reach suitable
storage and inspection facilities. Our location, just a short distance from Peterhead port, and our
range of facilities and services makes us ideally placed to provide a cost-effective alternative.
“The £49million Peterhead Port development has increased its capability to service oil & gas clients
operating in the UKCS and through the investment in our company we are committed to supporting
that by providing the facilities that operators and service companies sailing into Peterhead will need.
“As part of this we have formed an alliance with NorSea Group (UK), operators of Peterhead’s Smith
and Merchant quays. The agreement combines their full range of quayside services and logistics
expertise with the benefits of conveniently located storage and inspection facilities to provide a full
one-stop-shop service for the customer,” said Mr Geddie.
In the past year, IOS has taken on an additional 25 employees, doubling the previous workforce. The
expansion plans will create an additional 20 jobs within the coming months.
Included in the expansion plans is a new machine shop which will be operational in January. The
three-acre site will be owned by IOS, but the company has agreed a lease deal with Aberdeen-
headquartered NXG Oilfield Services Ltd for its use. The machine shop will provide machinery,
manufacturing, hard banding and a make-and-break facility.
“We are absolutely committed to the Peterhead area and the role we can play in the local economy,”
said Mr Geddie. “Since 2014 we will have invested almost £10million and created 70 new jobs with
seventy percent of our employees coming from the Buchan area. We would anticipate that total
rising in line with future company growth.
“We are also proud to support our local community and have signed up a shirt sponsors for
Peterhead FC’s first team.”
The company expects to make further announcements about major contract wins and detailed
expansion plans for the Longside facility in the near future.

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