Paul Whiley, COO and executive director of Mermaid Maritime DU4 , recently outlined the company’s strategy for long-term success, which includes expanding into decommissioning and other emerging sectors.
Despite the global shift toward renewable energy, he is confident that the oil and gas industry will continue to offer significant opportunities in the coming decades.
Headquartered in Thailand and listed on the Singapore Exchange S68 , Mermaid Maritime provides offshore and subsea services globally and has a diverse portfolio of contracts.
In recent years, the company has shifted focus to more profitable evergreen and sunrise sectors to enhance its bottom line and ensure long-term sustainability.
“For example, we’ve always done subsea cable laying but didn’t concentrate on this, so we never got a good share in the market. This is one of our new business priorities,” says Whiley tells The Edge Singapore.
Mermaid has also engaged in decommissioning, which involves removing infrastructure for disposal, reuse or recycling after the economic life of oil or gas fields.
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Although their current involvement is less than planned, the company is enthusiastic about expanding this eco-friendly work and anticipates at least 50 years of business opportunities.
Whiley says that there are vast numbers of offshore oil and gas wells worldwide and both oil and gas majors and governments have increasingly committed to restoring marine environments to their original state once the wells have been depleted.
He adds: “This means that we will see more demand for decommissioning-related services.”
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Building on this, Mermaid has entered the growing UK decommissioning market. Since 2023, the company has secured two three-year contracts with major internation- al firms, including Shell, to carry out decommissioning projects in the region.
As of March 31, Mermaid Maritime has secured offshore contracts valued at US$735 million ($973 million) in Thailand, the Middle East, the UK and Western Sub-Saharan Africa.
These contracts cover a range of services, including cable laying, subsea pipeline tie-ins, inspection, repair and maintenance, transportation and installation, decommissioning and related work.
The projects are scheduled to be executed and completed between FY2024 and FY2026.
Seizing opportunities
Whiley attributes Mermaid’s success to its ability to iden- tify and seize potential opportunities at the right time.
For example, in late 2021, as countries and the oil and gas industry began recovering from the pandemic, Mermaid invested US$16 million to acquire a 50% ownership stake in a crucial offshore construction vessel.
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He adds: “We had about US$53 million in the bank, which was a big investment, but we took control of our position in the cable space through that purchase. The Millennium 3 vessel’s unique design and capabilities earned it unprecedented approval from all the big majors in the Middle East to lay cable in waters shallower than 10 metres, using dynamic positioning and eliminating the need for anchoring. This has meant much quicker, safer and more seamless project rollouts for the group and our cli- ents, which has organically driven a significant uptick in capacity while rewarding our shareholders with a solid upside. Moreover, for the longer term, the cable space makes up a considerable part of the new green revolution [in the wind] — which is always a driver.”
It also capitalised on the UK’s regulation changes, introduced in 2022 to stop oil and gas firms from opting to pay fines instead of fulfilling their more costly decommissioning responsibilities, to make its inroads into the region’s decommissioning market.
“We knew we had a small window to make our name known there quickly,” Whiley says.
“We made a play there and got the first job after the rule change. Even though we incurred an initial loss on that project, it was worth it. We made a space for ourselves in the market and have developed it from there, which led to our two more recent contracts with Canadian Natural Resources and Shell.”
Whiley emphasises that close attention to industry developments and opportunities must be paired with a strong work ethic.
Before leaving Mermaid in 2016 for family reasons and returning as COO in 2020, he co-founded its business unit in the Middle East and spent years building it into a leading operation.
He adds: “If you want to stay on top and maintain critical momentum, then you need to try to make the company vital.”
Military values
Over the years, he has also instilled his dedication to planning within Mermaid, a skill he honed during his service in the South African military, where he became its most decorated navy diver and received the Gold Cross of Honour from the government.
“Any project is like a military operation in that you have a much better chance of succeeding with planning.”
He adds: “We try to instil this ethos, to look at every project as a little military operation and run it like that.”
He highlights that this has fostered more independent, proactive project managers who are up to the task of driving the company forward.
“It’s a sign of sustainable management practices when the project division can run its operations autonomously without executive involvement or guidance.”
“At the same time, we step up to help one another when necessary and have one another’s interests at heart.”
Highlighting Mermaid’s supportive culture, the company boasts many long-tenured staff, including over 1,000 engineers, divers, technicians and surveyors.
Among them are also many of Whiley’s former fellow soldiers from his military unit.
Whiley says that many employees joined Mermaid and most continue to stay, working so hard that he often has to encourage them to take time for themselves, whether going to the gym, collecting stamps, or enjoying other hobbies.
He sees this dedication as a key factor in the company’s success.
He also believes Mermaid is well-positioned for the future due to its team’s commitment and passion.
With its business segments growing across the board in 2023, it increased its revenue by 23% to US$275.4 million and recorded a net profit of US$9.7 million, a sharp increase from its US$338,000 net profit in 2022.
Its share price hit 14.7 cents in April, the highest since the pandemic.
He attributes Mermaid’s success to the support of its shareholder, Thoresen Thai Agencies, which owns a 58.2% stake in the company.
“In concert with our biggest shareholder’s direction and best intentions, we are moving into sunrise space.”
Whiley adds: “Four years ago, we were a US$80 million company. I don’t think anybody at the time would have believed it if I had said we would be doing nearly half a billion dollars worth of business from 2023 to 2025. Yet that’s where we are now and we will continue to improve the delivery of our services, expand and claim our space in the market.”
