MSI was formed in 2003 by three former colleagues of Thales Geo­Solutions' metocean business. The partnership of Stefan Stimson, Sidney Bilski and Bruce Spolander brought together complementary skills to ensure the strongest possible management team with nearly 50 years experience in the offshore oil and gas industry. As well as being directors of MSI, Stefan, Bruce and Sidney run the company in all aspects, including undertaking occasional fieldwork, therefore keeping up to date with the latest equipment and ensuring the projects are conducted according to stringent procedures and to the highest level possible.

Following a period of initial growth in its first six months, MSI secured two major contracts whilst attending an exhibition in London (Oceanology 04), one in Nigeria and the other in Sakhalin, Russia. MSI has since secured many other contracts globally, ranging in duration from one month to three years.

Controlled Expansion
Based in Cape Town, MSI now has seven full-time staff members there and access to a further seven through a sister company Lwandle Technologies. MSI also opened an office in Hobart, Australia in 2006 to better support the company's operations in Australasia and Asia, and is currently in the process of expanding this office from its current staff of 2. With the numerous direct international air links from both countries, MSI has spread across the globe with projects already conducted in over 27 countries.

Maintaining Focus
Although operating over a large area of the globe and providing services to a multitude of clients including the offshore oil & gas market, coastal engineers, dredging companies and port authorities, MSI has always focused on the client as the key component of our projects, ensuring they provide a service that exceeds requirements, and one that is backed by local support. This support is provided as a combination of extensive investigations into the area of operations along with, where appropriate, carefully selected local partners to add to their existing portfolio of services. This ensures that the customer receives the expertise of a dedicated metocean provider but benefits by the support and opportunities of a local player.

Going Deeper
MSI's size gives it increased flexibility when it comes to clients requirements. As well as undertaking small projects such as sales, training and installations, they are just as comfortable on long-term major deepwater projects. As this document is being prepared, they have a number of moorings installed in water depths between 1km and 1.5km and are currently planning moorings for deployment in excess of 2km. This environment adds a new level of challenges to both equipment choice and mooring design but MSI works closely with manufacturers and specialist engineers to ensure that all aspects are properly accounted for.

Opportunities
MSI's size and diversity across a multitude of disciplines has meant that, even with the general downturn in the industry over the last 12 months, they have experienced continued and substantial growth. The next 12 to 24 months is particularly exciting for the company as they expand into new areas and cement their position in others. MSI is now a multi-million dollar company and, complete with the purchase of millions of dollars of equipment in the last 3 years alone, they are quickly becoming not only an alternative supplier of metocean services globally, but also the preferred supplier.