With more than 40 years of ship repair experience, this SAOGA member is looking to expand into the oil and gas sector. General manager James Wrensch explains.
A natural bay overlooked by Cape Town and stretching south to the Cape of Good Hope, Table Bay is home to the iconic Table Mountain. For centuries it has been recognised as a haven for ships and today provides the perfect location for the operations of Hesper Engineering. With more than 40 years of ship repair experience, the company is well placed to service its customers’ repair and modification needs.
“What began life as a small engineering business that served the local fishing industry has since grown into a leading regional competitor offering a variety of core functions,” explains general manager, James Wrensch. “This enables Hesper Engineering to take on and deliver turnkey projects in all aspects of the marine engineering and fabrication industry.”
Able to carry out work in Walvis Bay, Lüderitz, Saldanha Bay, Simonstown and Port Elizabeth, with mobile teams available to travel to any part of southern and West Africa to carry out specialised repairs, Hesper Engineering’s highly trained technical staff includes ex-marine and naval engineering officers and artisans. Each possessing outstanding shipping and general engineering expertise, key members of the company’s staff are also fluent in Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and German.
Hesper Engineering has the ability to approach a project from multiple angles, and as part of the Novatech Group it can call on the support of other group members to subcontract as required. “While having the ability to cover the entire scope of a project is an invaluable quality,” Wrensch continues, “arguably the greatest strength of the company is its hands-on approach. From the management down, every employee of the company plays an active role in ensuring that the job at hand is done quickly and efficiently.”
Hesper Engineering has therefore earned a reputation for service in the ship repair industry. “If a customer needs something done quickly and done well,” Wrensch says, “they know there is no better company to turn to than Hesper Engineering.”
In 2009, the company took a first-of-its-kind project when it was tasked with constructing and fitting a new, 30 tonne rudder to the tanker M.T Biz to replace one lost in poor weather west of the Cape of Storms. The three-month project, carried out to the highest possible specifications, added greatly to the company’s experience.
Other large-scale projects include the lengthening and converting of the M.V North Star to a mono hull design and the building of additional fuel tanks on behalf of Carrier Marine in 2009, and a multi-faceted project involving the Transnet National Port Authority’s Enseleni Harbour Tug in 2010. This latter job involved the stripping and removal of the starboard Voith rotor from the vessel, repairing and modifying the sealing arrangement and the standard overhaul of the complete Voith unit. The company was able to complete work on the tug in just 26 days.
More recently, the company has completed work on an accommodation barge belonging to Sea Trucks Group. Central to this contract was the overhaul of two 30 tonne retractable thrusters. As these were approximately 12 metres each in length, the scale of the comprehensive refurbishment project presented an excellent opportunity for the engineers to add to their experience.
Hesper Engineering is also servicing the offshore diamond mining sector, specifically DeBeers Marine in all its underwater work when dry docking in Cape Town.
As approved design and installation agents for Epocast 36 resin chocking compound, the company is able to carry out main engine and machinery re-chocking in-house, preventing delays to vessels trying to source foreign expertise. Hesper is also an approved Simplex Service Station for the supply, installation and bonding of Simplex Stern Tube Seals.
Like some 170 other private sector companies, Hesper Engineering is a member of the South Africa Oil and Gas Alliance (SAOGA). As it continues to grow, it plans to become increasingly involved with the Alliance, sharing the knowledge and experience it has gained over the years with others. “It is probably fair to say that the company has yet to take full advantage of the benefits that membership of SAOGA provides,” says Wrensch. “This will change as Hesper Engineering evolves further and gears itself more towards the oil and gas sector.”
Committed to investing in its people, one of the benefits of SAOGA membership the company will no doubt look to capitalise on is the number of training programmes available. These will help develop the skills required to service the needs of oil and gas customers.
At the same time as it develops its employees’ capabilities, the company plans to expand its workshop facilities to cater for the contracts it will attract from the oil and gas sector, specifically those vessels that boast large propulsion units. “At the heart of the company’s expansion plans,” Wrensch explains, “is the building of a 400 square metre warehouse that will house a 30 tonne crane with a 14 metre lift underneath. This major project is expected to be carried out and completed during 2013.”
As plans for this expansion steadily gain steam, the future looks bright for Hesper Engineering. “Oil and gas is definitely the sector to target, especially in growth areas like West Africa,” Wrensch concludes. “Clearly, the way we operate has worked out well so far and from that point of view there is not much that needs improving. The local reputation we have gained over the years is nothing short of excellent and we fully intend to maintain this as we move forward.”
Written by Will Daynes, research by James Boyle
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