Water Industry Journal interviews Richard Stott, Managing Director of Nicol Directional Drilling, one of Britain’s leading directional drilling companies
Nicol is based in Aberdeen but undertakes projects across the UK and Ireland. How does that work?
Nicol’s operations centre is located in Skene on the Western fringe of Aberdeen, and we’re very proud of our Scottish heritage.
The ground conditions in the North East of Scotland are often poor, a mix of clay, shale, earth and rock – often in the same excavator bucket! Ironically, this variability has provided an ideal training ground for our directional drilling teams and contributed to our reputation for delivering successful projects whatever the terrain throws at us.
We also pride ourselves in being open straightforward to deal with, both from a technical and a commercial perspective. We often work on a fixed-fee basis. In all the years we have been operating we have never had to resort to mediation, adjudication or litigation.
What sets Nicol apart from the competition?
As I mentioned earlier, we have a reputation for getting the job done even in difficult conditions. A key factor is our investment in Ditch Witch all-terrain rigs. These rigs drill through rock as well as soft ground. As anyone who has worked on a civil engineering project will know, however much site investigation you do there is always the risk you will hit solid or fragmentary rock. We appeal to professional engineers who see a key part of their job as minimising and managing risk.
Directional drilling rarely happens in isolation. It’s typically part of a larger project Nicol’s origins are in civil engineering: earthworks, drainage, infrastructure and so on. We often find that our ability to call on these skills gives us greater flexibility and reassures our engineering clients.
We pride ourselves on our longstanding relationships with many of our clients. When we ask them what they like about working with us, they will often use words like trust, openness, consistency. I think what they’re getting at is that they buy into the way we do things: the Nicol culture. We are a company that has learning at its heart, and we share that learning with both existing and prospective clients. We are currently looking at how we can make this learning more accessible through videos, white papers, and workshops.
I was in a meeting recently with one of our engineers and when the client asked what set us apart he simply said: ‘We work for Derek Nicol’. Derek is our founder and still actively involved in everything we do. We have Derek to thank for our reputation of ‘getting the job done’, and for our collaborative approach to client relationships and communications.
Tell us about a recent project Nicol has completed?
That question made me smile. The difficulty is in deciding which one to choose! We do get involved in many interesting and challenging projects across the year.
A good example of this is Glenlatterach, a project we completed for Scottish Water in November. High flood waters had washed away the existing main from the bed of the River Lossie, the only source of water for about 5,000 properties. A cluster of 25mm and 32mm pipes had been strung above the river as a temporary measure. There was a real fear the pipes would freeze as winter set in. Other companies had declined to tender due to the project’s many complexities,
We started on site at the end of November. The drill was through rock down a 58m fall into a ravine and then under the river. The exit point was in an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest), about 3km from the nearest road. The river fed several distilleries so it was critical there was no contamination. Our engineers worked closely with land agents and Scottish Natural Heritage to design a solution that met the objectives of all the stakeholders.
In true Nicol fashion we ‘got the job done’!
