Sales Executive Appointed to Concentrate on New Markets

Rotech Subsea Blog

Mass-flow excavation (MFE) specialists Rotech Subsea has appointed Sales Executive Brian Schacht to concentrate on new and expanding markets throughout the Gulf of Mexico and Latin America.

The company, which operates a unique and patented range of T tools, has mainly been involved in decommissioning works in the Gulf of Mexico for the past three years.

Brian’s first task when he joined Rotech Subsea’s Houston office was to spend three months researching the decommissioning markets in Gulf states including Alabama, Florida and Louisiana. He has also been researching the untapped markets of Latin American countries such as Columbia, Chile and Venezuela.

Brian, 25, said: “There is such a massive potential for our tool in areas outwith where we have currently been working. It has been my task so far to figure out where that is, what the work is and how we can get ourselves known there.

“The hurricanes of 2005 and 2006 wreaked absolute havoc across oil installations throughout the Gulf of Mexico and thus far we have mainly only concentrated our services in that region.”

“It is vitally important for us as a company to make ourselves known and available to a diverse market.”

Brian joined Rotech Subsea after spending two years working in construction equipment rental sales. He graduated with a Political Science degree in May 2005 from Sam Houston State University.

And although this is his first oil services job he has plenty experience of the industry. His father Bill has worked for BP for over thirty years.

Brian, of Downtown Houston, said: “This is my first job in the oil industry but I have had a good grounding in it.”

“At the end of the day sales is sales. The skills involved in building relationships can be adapted to numerous industries as well as to selling the services of a mass-flow excavation tool – although I admit I am still learning a lot.”

Rotech Subsea was launched in 2001 in Aberdeen, Scotland, when Rotech Group Directors Ken Stewart and Dr. Hector Susman designed and patented the company’s unique T excavation system, which are now recognised as the world’s leading mass-flow subsea excavation tools.                                                                             

The tools work by using two counter-rotating propellers to channel a powerful flow of water downwards to clear subsea material, rocks and mud in a process called mass-flow excavation.  Technicians use live sonar feedback to adjust power levels and as there’s no physical contact with the sea floor or structures, there is little risk of damage.

Previously, the alternative was to use cumbersome dredging equipment and costly support vessels which meant some jobs took up to five times longer with the added risk of damaging seabed installations or pipelines.

Rotech Subsea has worked in Venezuela in the past, but President Kenneth R. Mackie admits there is huge untapped potential in the region and Rotech Subsea needed someone to take the time to understand it.

He said: “The Latin American market is a very complex one and one we have little experience in. It has fantastic potential for us, as do the other Gulf states.

“It is fantastic that we have taken Brian on and he is making such headway to discovering how we can firmly entrench ourselves in these new regions.”

The T system range of tools offers businesses, particularly those in the oil and gas sector, a faster, cost-effective option to tackle a range of excavation applications such as pipeline/cable burial, pipeline de-burial for maintenance, wellhead clearance, rock dump removal, decommissioning work, sand wave levelling, hurricane repair work, harbour deepening and mud removal.

Rotech Subsea’s turnover in the first year was £125,000 and the company employed just three staff from its Aberdeen base. It now also bases in Texas, Mexico and Singapore. In the 06/07 tax year turnover exceeded £10million and 28 projects were completed.