OCCMS: OCCMS Preps Global Expansion Alongside Orion Group

Some of the world’s largest energy majors continue to search for modern, innovative solutions when it comes to commissioning and completion of vital projects that will enable and enhance the energy landscape now and into the future.

It’s a challenging and often costly endeavour, but safety, security and quality are at the heart of every commissioning and completion project. Cost is unavoidable for operators and so it makes sense to partner with the best and invest in support that is proven in delivery.

Leading services company, OCCMS, has both the ability and the reach to provide impactful results for clients. Part of the Orion Group, OCCMS is based in Aberdeen and focuses on engineering solutions for commissioning and completions on energy infrastructure projects worldwide. Leaning on its parent company, the business is able to offer a range of services that others cannot, streamlining the approach and providing cost efficiency.

The Orion Group is a human resources specialist with 37 years of experience, initially serving the fabrication space for the offshore North Sea market but expanding across the wider energy sector. Management saw the potential synergy between the two businesses and now OCCMS complements with its services that can be deployed around the world.

Famed for its Orbit software – a management system software that underpins excellence in project management and delivery – OCCMS is busy searching for opportunities in new markets, in new geographies, and with new customers while it excels with its portfolio of current complex cases.

At the Centrica Storage onshore gas and processing terminal, OCCMS has been operating for a number of years, using Orbit to help safely deliver commissioning and completions services. Over several phases, the infrastructure was upgraded while continuing to receive natural gas and associated liquids from offshore fields. The gas is transferred to the national transmission system and OCCMS work ensured the project has been a major success with 60,000 total onshore hours without a lost time incident, including during the Covid 19 pandemic. The company is also completed significant projects for Glencore, Imperial Oil, EDF Nuclear, Addax Petroleum, ExxonMobil and many more.

“In 2019, the company began to evolve into more of a consultancy,” says Operations Director, Jamie Japp. “We have gone from strength to strength, consolidating and pivoting with our strategy along the way.”

GLOBALLY RECOGNISED

Japp is looking to build the OCCMS reputation in new markets while leveraging the scope of services provided by Orion Group. With offices in the UK, Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Oman, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Mozambique, Senegal, Vietnam, Uganda, Singapore, Norway, and Iraq, wherever projects begin, OCCMS gets the news quickly.

“In 2022 and 2023 we started a big push in the USA where we have offices in Houston, Chicago, and Jersey City. We have been building the brand there and winning new work, and that has been successful,” he details. “When we are speaking as a specialist business, we can engage with other offices and offer the parent company and their clients more than just manpower supply – we can offer specialist services to help them deliver their projects.”

The innovation and invention of OCCMS and Orbit combined with the capacity and experience of Orion Group is where real strength is achieved for clients. “When they speak to their clients, they can offer clients something so much more niche and bespoke,” says Japp. “We are helping to educate regional and overseas offices so that they can think about us as a standalone business unit, asking what their clients are doing about commissioning and completion and the specialist technicians and engineers that go with that service.”

Alongside putting specialised engineers into the right places with the best software, the pair can make use of a list of professional contractors who are experienced in the field and also knowledgeable of OCCMS and Orion Group methodology. Importantly, these approved contractors also speak the language of Orbit and Japp describes them as “the top 10% of individuals”.

This success was demonstrated with TAQA Bratani on the UKCS where the company’s onshore engineering department saw a need to streamline and more effectively monitor commissioning and completion challenges across five North Sea assets. Orbit was rolled out, alongside skilled personnel, and the client was able to make radical improvements to workflow, process management, and accountability in a short space of time.  

“We are actively delivering projects for a number of end users,” says Japp of the current project pipeline. “We look after all commissioning and completion for Total assets in the North Sea – Alwyn, Culzean, Elgin, and other assets. That is a contract that we are in year four of five and we have extension options. We are actively still involved with Centrica and we have team members working at the terminal and offshore. That work comes from our reputation for safety. We deliver safely and professionally, and we understand the operations of our clients because we have been working together for a long time. 

“Longer-term,” he adds, “we are looking at projects that can be as minor as fire prevention software mods with one technician right up to subsea tiebacks or topside infrastructure changes. We work right through the scale of what you’d find on an offshore asset – especially an aged asset in the brownfield space.”  

DIVERSIFY, GROW

When Orion Group started life in 1987, oil and gas was the unquestioned energy provision of the day. Even at the time of the formation of OCCMS in 2006, North Sea oil and gas remained vitally important in European energy strategy. But today, the energy transition is underway and businesses must adapt. Those that are able to identify the opportunities and take advantage are those that will thrive. Japp says that OCCMS is perfectly positioned to adjust its position as the large greenfield projects in the oil and gas space are few and far between.

“We are seeing a surge in Orbit licenses and so we have pivoted and recognised that our clients all don’t just need a black box with basic training. We now offer a bespoke part of software supply where we can build a database for the client and give them full training while supplying resources like completion engineers to manage the database on their behalf,” he says.

“We have had to pivot into renewables and offshore wind,” he adds. “The language is slightly different in the way completions and commissioning is undertaken. We are adapting successfully and we are well-formed and articulated in that space. We are leaning heavily towards the software and the service of that software because the lifecycle of commissioning and completion is such that we still need to work through the execution phase into the operational phase, and we still need to verify what construction does, but the golden thread is completions management. By pivoting, while keeping an eye on big projects and maintaining current clients, we will be able to develop the software to be fully offline, fully digital, and fully cloud-based.”

The advantage that OCCMS brings here is a flexibility, able to work in a more conventional manner or on a modern infrastructure, or as a blend of the two. Japp says that this delivery comes as a result of the company possessing a deep understanding of the commissions and completions space – knowledge that others do not have.

“There are many long-term providers and they all compete in the cloud space,” he says. “Our clients can go traditional and print off exhibits and tick boxes or we can provide a full cloud system, hosted on servers on their behalf.”

The level of detail involved in the software makes it challenging to manipulate and fit each project, and some companies try to offer a blanket approach across the market. This, says Japp, is not suitable and is why OCCMS continually adapts and updates its product and services range.

“Our system will, ultimately, be much more than a completions management system,” he says. “Completions management is all about tests and inspections. When you engineer a project, there are many deliverables with many tags. Construction comes and builds the infrastructure around that, putting in all the instruments and controls and power generation etc – all which have their own tags. Those then create sub-systems that sit in other systems. When it is all built to the design, it is mechanically complete. Commissioning teams then inspect everything to ensure it meets the design before moving into testing. When all the sub-systems are pre-commissioned they are dynamically tested together to ensure the package is ready to be handed over for operation.”

Verifying everything and providing useable evidence is vital, and each client has its own internal process that Orbit and OCCMS must plug into. Thankfully, Orbit is a powerful tool that has been honed over years of operation on major projects. “It provides all the evidence, and we recognise that our system has the potential to do a lot more and we are testing that now. We are well-versed and we know what we want to do and what we want to avoid,” says Japp.

Further development of Orbit, alongside a deliberate entry to new markets, while deepening relationships with key clients shows a level of ambition that others, in the current economic climate, are not willing to share.

“We want to be the best in the business,” confirms Japp. “We are mindful that we are small – headcount-wise – just now, and we realise that putting everything into oil and gas is not the answer,” he says, adding that clients don’t want the same as what has been done before, especially those further along their transition journey. “We know we need to diversify and we know we must invest. We want to embrace change and understand very clearly what our clients are looking for – even when they don’t know and we have to lead them through our own experiences. Listening is the key. Orbit is our software, it’s proprietary, we develop it all in house, and we operate it all out of Aberdeen.”

PASSIONATE PLAYERS

Importantly, the service that OCCMS delivers is based around the knowledge, expertise and pioneering of people. It is a people business and a people-focused group. By creating a vibrant and trust-filled atmosphere, Japp believes that the people in OCCMS will continue to drive and thrive.

“We are a specialist business and the company is a family owned business. There is an intimate and personal feel about working here,” he says. “We are all spread across all of our pursuits, and that makes you feel part of the everyday – you feel you can make a difference and that your voice is heard. That is close to my own heart and that is what I enjoy about being part of OCCMS.”

The relationship the company enjoys with its parent company is remarkably positive, and the two work as extensions of each other rather than competitors or cost centres. This fosters creativity and ambition.  

“We see the USA and Canada as big regions for us, and we have a lot of friendly colleagues in that region that we can piggyback on,” Japp says of Orion Group presence in North America. “We also recognise the Middle East as a huge opportunity. Alongside the wider group, we are typically included in the tenders and pursuits they are involved with and we actively ensure we have the correct accreditations and licenses to be considered for projects in those regions. We do also have offices in multiple international locations so if there is the hint of a commissioning or completion project, we get that insight very quickly through our network.”

In the market today, there are few that can respond as quickly as OCCMS and few that can create a proposition with many of the world’s majors to call on as case studies. The company uses all of its insight, from a range of project successes, to always do better and more efficient work.

“When you develop your projects for tomorrow’s market, you don’t always know what that market will look like, but you know how it shouldn’t look because of all the learnings you have. We believe that we are developing something that our clients will truly value,” says Japp.

“Our passion and intimate service is what we hope is enough for new clients to give us a chance,” he concludes.

Whether its expansion, overhaul, or newbuild, OCCMS and Orion Group together deliver powerful technology and human capital. And when this mix is correctly applied, results and outcomes can be achieved in an unrivalled fashion – underpinned by safety and cost efficiency.