So, ModuSpec, where have you been?

Whilst it has been great to return to the office, these past few weeks for me hailed the much overdue return of something crucially important as a sales professional – face-to-face client meetings. One session, in particular, was a 2.5-hour session with a prospective client, particularly focussed around an upcoming drilling campaign in West Africa where a high-spec sixth or seventh drillship would be required for deepwater exploration.?

The honest comment from the client right at the start of proceedings was:

“I wanted to have this meeting as ModuSpec is a name I haven’t heard of in a number of years, so I didn’t know you were still in the rig inspection business. So, hearing of ModuSpec again definitely piqued my interest.”

This took me back to the article our Operations Manager Mark Watson posted back in May "You are ModuSpec, right?" which captured the essence of how the ModuSpec name has returned to the marketplace under Vysus Group after an extended period of brand hibernation whilst part of LR. However, this particular client engagement reminded me how the job of communicating changes and updates to our business across our client base (current or prospective) is a continuous task, required across multiple mediums. The power of word-of-mouth can never go underappreciated.

Whilst the ModuSpec name has been back for almost 12 months now, our business has been far from dormant; 2021 for ModuSpec in the rig intake and inspection market has been an incredible year so far. Our team has supported clients throughout the world, from land to deepwater delivering over 100 rig intake projects across 20 different countries spanning five continents with some of the highlights including:

• Onshore rig inspections across Egypt, Gabon, Tunisia and Spain
• Reactivation of three cold stacked jack-up drilling rigs in the North Sea
• BOP verification and inspection projects for clients working in the Black and Caspian seas
• Various semisubmersible inspection and acceptance projects in Australia, Spain, Mexico, Norway and the UK
• Several sixth and seventh-generation deepwater drillship reactivation and acceptance projects in Egypt, Nigeria, Namibia and Angola

The challenges of mobilising our discipline-specific Surveyors to international locations has pushed us to deliver remote solutions as well including:

• Review of documentation & certification
• Assessing crew competency (see my colleague Steve Harris' article "Having confidence in competence" for some further insight into how we've supported clients in this area)
• Reviewing jack-up to platform interface
• Hybrid rig inspections (combined rig site and onshore support)

We’ve continued to build upon our existing relationships as well and create new ones culminating in:

• Three global rig inspection contract renewals
• New global rig inspection Master Service Agreements
• Multiple new local agreements with clients in the Netherlands, Nigeria, Ghana and UK.

Earlier this week we also announced a new six-figure contract win with a key client in Egypt as well.

So where has ModuSpec been? We have been right here all along and we are ready to help new and existing clients with their next rig intake and inspection projects.?