Richard Beattie Appointed Operations Director

Rotech Subsea Press releases

Aberdeen-based Rotech Subsea has promoted General Manager Richard Beattie to Operations Director of the company.

Richard, 47, has worked at the company – whose specialist “T” excavation system is now recognised as the world’s leading “Mass Flow” subsea excavation tool – since 2004 after a long stint in the financial sector, followed by 16 years in the retail industry. He joined the company as Business Development Manager, before being promoted to General Manager in 2006.

Father-of-two Richard, of Portlethen, Aberdeenshire, said: “I am absolutely delighted with my promotion. During the last few years I have seen both my career, and the company, really take off.

“When I joined Rotech it was a reasonably small operation, obviously bursting at the seams to cope with the demand. We have come a long way in the past few years.”

Richard’s appointment comes at an exciting time for the company. It has recently announced plans to open new bases in Mexico and Singapore. It already has large Aberdeen and Houston bases.

The opening of the two bases is needed to cope with ever-soaring demand for Rotech’s unique, patented range of mass flow excavation (MFE) tools.

Turnover in 2001, Rotech Subsea’s first year of operation, was £125,000 and there were three members of staff. Turnover in the last financial year exceeded £10million with the workforce sitting in excess of 70 and still growing to meet demand. Around 28 major projects were completed in 2007, but in 2008 that is expected to soar past 40 projects , with the size and scale of these contracts also getting bigger, and turnover correspondingly surging by 40 

Company President Kenneth R. Mackie said Richard has been an integral part of the company’s success over the past three years and this promotion is recognition of that. Kenneth is based in Houston and has entrusted Richard for the past two years to take care of interests from Aberdeen.

Kenneth said: “Richard has been a great friend, as well as colleague, of mine for many years. When things with Rotech Subsea started to take off I knew he was the man who could help me make the company the success it is today.

“It is just phenomenal how much the company has evolved in the past few years. Rotech Subsea is a great success story. We have a superb product which our ever-growing client base is very happy to use because it not only provides a solution to a wide range of challenges, but delivers the job cheaper, faster and more effectively than what existed before.

“But despite our successes, we have been very conscious about not standing still, that’s why the number of spreads of our tools have increased from two to 15, with seven more in development.  In addition we listen to challenges that our clients are experiencing and through our sister companies Rotech Engineering and Rotech Fabrication we have newly designed tools in production geared to offer a practical and cost effective solution to specific needs.”

The Rotech “T” tools work by using two counter-rotating propellers to channel a powerful flow of water downwards to clear subsea material, rocks and mud. Technicians use live sonar feedback to adjust power levels and as there’s no physical contact with the sea floor or structures, there’s 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.

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 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.