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T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R T H E U K O F F S H O R E O I L A N D G A S I N D U S T R Y
Making waves
The UK upstream oil and gas supply chain continues to make waves at home and
abroad underpinning a £35 billion sector that supports hundreds of thousands of
jobs domestically.
Wireline
talks to EV and BEL Valves, whose journeys illustrate the
great demand for British expertise globally, shining a spotlight on the supply chain’s
capabilities and making an immense contribution to our economy.
W
hen the team at EVwas
supplying and installing in-car
cameras in the early 2000s
for television coverage of races such as
Formula 1, its members didn’t think that a
decade later they would be operating their
products at a depth of over 8,500 metres in
the Gulf of Mexico. But then no-one could
have foreseen that a small in-car camera
specialist fromNorwich would realise its
future in oil and gas, and, in doing so, would
grow into a £20 million global enterprise.
The story began in 2004 when a UK client
worked with EV to develop its advanced
camera system as a diagnostic tool for oil
and gas wells. Communication links were
needed to operate at the required depths,
and EV used its technical know-how to
create its own communications chip.
The turning point came in 2010 when
equity company Lime Rock Partners made
a significant investment in EV and Francis
Neill joined as CEO to take the firm from
a small Norwich-based outfit to become
a global provider. Francis came with a
BEL Valves anticipates exports will grow to over 80 per cent
of its output over the next five years. Pictured are expanding
gate valves supplied for operations in Trinidad and Tobago
