WIRELINE AUTUMN 2014 ISSUE 29

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

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 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

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

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

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,

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