SEAWELD ENGINEERING LTD
Masters of Service
Achieving empowered and resourceful service
Seaweld Engineering Limited is a well renowned oil & gas service company based in Ghana, formed under a franchise from the Company’s UK operations in October, 2007.
That year, Alfred Fafali Adagbedu, Managing Director of the Company set up the Ghanaian operations with just four employees. In little more than 10 years it has grown to now comprise more than 200 employees in Ghana and has grown out into 14 countries across the globe; quite the achievement for such a short space of time in the industry.
As a limited liability company with an internal ultimate authority - its Board of Directors - Seaweld Engineering is 100 percent Ghanaian-owned.
“Seaweld is widely known as the number one service provider in manpower supply and management, welding and fabrication, tank and vessel cleaning, equipment rental, scaffolding, procurement and logistics, as well as bunkering services,” explains Adagbedu. “In order to enable us to provide these services, we have highly-skilled departments that include the Operations Department, Sales
and Business Development, Human Resource Department, Logistics Department, Administration, Accounts, QAQC and HSE, and lastly the Department of Technical Support.”
Incremental growth plan
Despite experiencing quite the meteoric rise to success over the years, Seaweld Engineering’s approach to market growth has been measured and structured through a plan of incremental growth.
“In 2010 we began major operations in Ghana with the provision of scaffolding equipment, rentals and training,” continues Adagbedu. “At that point we completed our first major welding and fabrication project - the boat landing structure for Technip - which led onto major expansion for us over the next couple of years into nine other African countries and other parts of the world.”
The development of the popularity of the Company’s work continued to rocket from that point onwards, and in 2013 Seaweld was involved in the construction of a technical welding and fabrication structure to cater for growing oil & gas requirements.
“2014 brought about the construction of deck stools and pipe racks for the FPSO Prof. J.E.A Mills, as well as the underwater photography and foul removal for Vessel MT Sofie Theresa,” adds Adagbedu. “Both of those projects were challenging in their own right and built up our company knowledge base; these challenges went on to continue through the construction of riser protection frames for FPSO John Agyekum Kuffouor, the dismantling and assembling of ferries MV Senchi and MV Akrade, and lastly the sea water injection motor handling frame for FPSO Kwame Nkrumah.”
As an organisation, Seaweld Engineering has kept learning and evolving with time through the
applications involved in its projects.
Adagbedu continues: “We also welcome competition as a new building block for our success, taking our integrity and passion for being leaders in the field and the joy of knowing we are making a difference to spur us on.
“The majority of our key contracts are obtained through open competitive tenders where we can use 100 percent local content to our advantage.”
Partner support
With thanks to the vast experience it has attained over a relatively short space of time, Seaweld Engineering prides itself on its ability to provide services and solutions that ably meet with the requirements of drilling companies, field operators and construction companies across its many markets of operation.
With the support of its partners, the Company is able to provide a worldclass service to answer its customers’ requests, including logistical, manpower and engineering needs.
“Our strategy from day one has been to build a company that will be able to sustain profitable growth, while also creating significant shareholder value,” explains Adagbedu. “The achievement of this strategy has led to our moves into the UK, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Benin, Lesotho, the USA, Liberia, Israel, Mauritania, South Africa and Norway.
“When it comes to identifying these potential new regions of operation, we identify credible shareholders and form local companies within that area. It is our aim to reach every continent in the world.”
In order to successfully service every continent in the world, the Company has had to first build a reputation that precedes it. In the present day Seaweld is renowned in each of the divisions it works in and has technology and equipment that enables it to work on projects of any specification and size.
“We have a wide variety of specialist metal-welding services in-house, with certified staff that can easily meet and exceed the expectations of our customers on every project,” explains Adagbedu. “Whether you require one-time assembly, to long production runs, we want to be the top choice for the oil & gas industry.”
Alongside industry-specific equipment, the Company is able to provide consistent skill and expertise that will meet the global demands placed upon it now and in the future.
“We are completely confident that both our onshore and offshore services are perfectly able to deliver and meet with the highest level of industry standards and excellence,” adds Adagbedu. “We focus specifically on performance and innovation to keep us ahead of the industry curve across welding and fabrication, scaffolding, tank cleaning, vessel repair and maintenance, or procurement and logistics.”
Industry saturation
In such a heavily saturated industry, Seaweld stands out from the rest with its highly-competent and motivated employees that are genuinely committed to achieving success for both the clients and the Company as a whole.
Adagbedu states: “We pride ourselves on the consistent delivery of outstanding safety and operational performance that sustains our client base, while simultaneously building a new one.
“Our delivery of outstanding safety and operational performance has also led to our Company’s reputation as an attractive workplace for our employees, where we nurture and create superior skill.”
Moving forward the Company is setting its sights on continuous development in pursuit of a leading service provider role within the industry, utilising the right material resources and empowering the most efficient human resources that will enable it to meet with world class standards of industrial service.
“Our provision of 100 percent local content and quality services is something that we are incredibly proud of and is something that we hope will help us in our pursuit of becoming a giant service company on all continents,” concludes Adagbedu. “Looking to the future, Seaweld is looking forward to partnering with experienced companies in similar services in order to build local capacity in all areas of operation.”