An undersea gazelle
Award-winning IKM Cleandrill provides tech and personnel to the offshore oil industry
Photo: Thomas Haugersveen / IKM Cleandrill
IKM Cleandrill’s CEO Tom Hasler, left, and founder Ståle Kyllingstad.
Rasmus Falck
Oslo, Norway
Since 2003, newspaper Dagens Næringsliv has presented Norwegian gazelle companies. To be a “gazelle” the company has to have strong growth, double its revenue over the last four years, and make money. Gazelle of the Year for 2015 is IKM Cleandrill.
IKM Cleandrill is a specialist service provider to the offshore drilling industry. They utilize the latest generation of subsea and surface pumping technologies to manage drilling fluids in support of semi-submersible, drill-ship, and jack-up drilling operations. Services include mud recovery, level control, and plugging and abandonment volume control. They represent the new generation of subsea pumping technology. The company develops proprietary technologies from its headquarters in Bergen, Norway, and provides services to clients on a global basis.
The technology is offered to the customers on a rental basis, together with offshore operations personnel. Within the company are highly experienced engineers who deliver these subsea technologies and services to the offshore drilling industry all over the world.
IKM Cleandrill joined the IKM Group in late 2011. After three lean years, sales finally took off in 2013. Since 2011 the total growth has been an astonishing 3473 percent. The company is headquartered in Bergen and has additional bases in Perth, Australia, and Aberdeen, UK. The company was also one of Norway’s most attractive employers among engineering students in 2015. It employs 2,450 people and had a budgeted turnover of 4.2 billion NOK last year.
Just before Christmas, the subsidiary in Mexico signed a new contract with Dragados Offshore Mexico for commissioning activities in a project in the Campeche region of the Gulf of Mexico. The project consists of two platforms plus associated bridges and substructures. The state oil company, PEMEX, will increase the current oil and gas production in this region with this project. It will hopefully lead to work with other companies in similar projects in the region.
Earlier, the company was awarded a contract at the Johan Sverdrup Field, located about 140 km west of Stavanger.
Upon winning the award, founder Ståle Kyllingstad gave credit to his coworkers and staff, saying that 100 percent of their success was due to the perfect team behind the technology, and that he was only paying!
The goal of IKM Cleandrill is to become the technology leader and first choice service provider within subsea drilling fluids management. To achieve that they will continue to work together with IKM Group’s world-class global resources to provide high-quality, cost-effective solutions to the clients.
But they’re not the only fast-growing company with big dreams. There were a total of 2,449 gazelles in Norway in 2015!
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 15, 2016, issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
