Consultancy specialises in tailor-made solutions

Land & Sea Drilling Consultants was acknowledged as "unique" when it won the United Travel Business and Innovation category at last month's Westpac Tauranga Business Awards.

Colin Hindson's Land & Sea Drilling Consultants has found a niche by bringing time and motion analysis to oil and gas companies in both New Zealand and internationally.

The Tauranga-based company was acknowledged as "unique" when it won the United Travel Business and Innovation category at last month's Westpac Tauranga Business Awards.

The award judges said the company worked with local and international customers to create tailor-made operating solutions.

"Using individual site analysis combined with operating experience, Land & Sea Drilling has established a reputation for enabling significant increases in productivity in a high cost and competitive offshore drilling industry. The company is now bringing its expertise to local markets."

With almost four decades experience in all aspects of the oil and drilling business, Hindson first became aware of the efficiency gains of analysing performance while consulting to BP in Scotland in the 1990s.

"There's a lot of repeat activity when you drill a well," he said.

"You can benchmark and track performance to improve efficiency gains."

Hindson said that even though the industry was always looking at technical solutions, he could see that time and motion studies were becoming increasingly important.

"The prime objective of my services is a reduction of costs/time without any detriment to health and safety."

His consultancy, which began operations in 2013, has been focusing on small to medium oil and gas companies. Successful contracts have included projects in Gabon, Africa, and in Indonesia.

"New Zealand's industry is small on a global scale, but there is a market here," said Hindson, who earlier this year completed a 14-month project for a client based in New Plymouth.

He has also been targeting the New Zealand geothermal sector. David Porter