Mirrico

Mirrico, a Russian chemical solutions and technology company, was started on April 14th 2000.

“Mirrico, the company, began nine years ago. Back then we started under the initiative to produce and manufacture water-based acetate, chromium, crosslinker polymer systems, for the enhanced recovery within the oil industry. We began to manufacture this chemical, then within two years we were trading and becoming involved with many chemical processors and offering wide range of products for our customers,” Rustam Ramazanov co-founder of the Mirrico Group of Companies says.

“Prior to 2003 our efforts were focused on enhanced oil recovery agents but after this time we began searching for other sectors to branch into, for example oilfield’s chemistry and mud and drilling fluids.”

This early realization of Mirrico’s potential to branch out into other chemical manufacturing and technologies planted the seed that has grown into the diverse company it is today.

“Since that time we realized that merely selling and producing isn’t enough for our customers. Our customers are looking for complex solutions for complex services which are what we started to do in order to meet their requirements. Additionally, our research and development department became something we focused and worked on,” Ramazanov explains.

“Since 2004 we began investing in laboratories and we built a few to work towards our new business directions and to develop them further. These were oilfields chemistry, enhanced oil recovery and drilling fluids.”

In 2005 after a chemical plant was purchased, production of chemical agents for oil and metallurgy industries was set up. Over 100 items of chemical agents for oil processing, drilling, EOR, extension of service life of processing facilities and oil pipelines are produced there. The chemical agents are produced for support of operation activities of the affiliated companies, as well as for external customers.

“That’s how we moved to become a service company which already had a scientific engineering centre. The plant provided Mirrico with more possibilities to produce and develop the products we were thinking about and working on,” Ramazanov says.

“In addition to the activities here, we had many services which were concerned with preparation of equipment and preparation of wells using chemistry technologies, including water cycle system services too. “

Ramazanov sat down to talk about Mirrico’s incredible journey and their latest big news; their new scientific research and engineering centre.

Mirrico Today
Revenue of the company in 2008 was $135 mio., number of personnel - around 400 employees.

The number of products and services consumer includes the largest Russian and foreign companies , enterprises, metallurgical complexes and service subdivisions: Rosneft, Gazpromneft, Lukoil, Surgutneftegaz, Tatneft, Slavneft, Bashneft, ТNК-ВР, Usinskgeoneft , KazMunajGas, Petro Kazakhstan, NLMK & etc.

At present there are three lines of activity comprising the Group: service (oilfield service, complex service for well flushing, Enhanced Oil Recovery services with chemical methods, stabilization treatment of circulation water for industrial enterprises), production and trading (well construction and oil production).
Today Mirrico is working on development of two major projects:

“One is the Service for oil refinery plants. This is a very new project both for us and for Russia which we plan to begin in 2010. Today we’re researching and developing our processes, by 2010 we would like to have Service contracts with oil refinery plants here in Russia,” Ramazanov says.

“The second project we are working on is the provision of services to pulp and paper industry. All of our projects involve the use of chemistry technologies. These are two new sectors for Mirrico.”

The company is also involved in an entirely unique project which sees them branching out further and partnering on an international level.

“We are now working with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. We are already working with local companies and receiving great results, and now we are looking to establish Mirrico-branches in these regions,” Ramazanov says.

“Amongst investment projects we place a lot of our attentions on scientific research centres. We’re now building a new one which will be 2,000 square metres and contain 12 new laboratories.”

Mirrico: Unique in Russia
Ramazanov explains that the environment in which they operate in Russia has meant that they are quite different from other chemical manufacturing, services and technology companies.

“Mirrico is the only Russian company of its kind which branches out into different fields of chemical technology for the oil and gas sectors. There are no other Russian companies which specialize in different aspects of chemistry. Other companies are involved in chemistry as one aspect of their business, that’s why our company is the biggest providing chemistry field services in mentioned sectors,” he says.

“That is why we have a lot more resources and sources for teaching, production and training our personnel.”

This ability to specialize and go that extra mile for their clients is in no small part down to their new research and engineering centre, and has enabled Mirrico to tackle the personnel and training challenges experienced across the board in Russia.

“In Russia the personnel situation is complicated. It is difficult to find quality specialists regardless of whether you are talking about managing specialists or specialists from technical backgrounds. This is why we work closely with institutions to continue to maintain the best personnel statistics and approach potential new employees,” Ramazanov says.

“We’re also trying to maintain our own training centre where we send our people and they improve their skills. When it comes to managing personnel, we look for skilled people to employ, or grow up our own personnel who show significant results and now there are about 15 people who have achieved a master of business administration degree and/or are studying at MBA institutions.”

Investing in their research centre has been a hot topic for the company of late, which Ramazanov likens to a doctor paying home visits to meet the needs of his patients.

“When a doctor or someone working in hospital consults you for your problems, shows you how to control them, avoid them, go about them the best way to cure them. This comparison suits our services team which work on the sites. They are like the home doctors because they are looking for customer’s problems and taking care of the health of their equipment,” he says.

Aside from retaining and creating expertise in their native market and curing the needs of their many varied clients, Mirrico is taking steps to establish an international presence. This recently culminated in their first international water-cycle systems services conference.

“We invited all of our clients who work in this field, as well as famous scientists and professors who are involved in the field too. We also invited main manufacturers from Russia as well as from abroad,” Ramazanov says.

“When other companies organize these kinds of conferences their first goal is to introduce themselves and their products to potential clients from abroad, whereas our target was not to advertise, but to organize a discussion session from which we would be able to learn about the current issues in the field, upcoming methodologies and new innovations. We wanted to integrate all of the filters of our working processes beginning with scientists, through to the manufacturers themselves. We gave these results to our scientific research and engineering centres, which also appeared in the conference.”

The Future of Mirrico
The company has an ambitious goal to be one of the three world leaders supplying chemical solutions in different industries by 2019.

Ramazanov says that Mirrico’s plans going forward centre around their mid-term three year strategy.

“We plan to become the leading company for new fields in Russia and to become the first for which we expect a 50 per cent year-on-year company growth. When this three year span has passed, we intend to sit and to work on a new strategy to commence with our entrance to new markets abroad,” he explains.
“For this current time we are closely analyzing the foreign markets to investigate where we might work towards more efficient results.”

Realization of long-term strategy, to be inside the top three of world leaders among companies providing chemical solutions for different sectors, is based on the key competitive advantages of the Group:

1. Differentiated business. The company develops and introduces chemical solutions for different sectors of industry. Within the structure of the Group effectively operate servicing, scientific and producing companies.

2. Activity of the Group is based on knowledge (thorough study) of specific requirements of the customer. Development of the most effective solution in terms of economic and performance characteristics is based on vast experience in different sectors and in different regions.

3. The company has been developing research department from the moment of its foundation, and by now it is safe to say that R&D aspect of Mirrico Group of Companies is one of the most advanced among independent service companies in Russia. R&D in Mirrico is based on the team of skilled chemists and process engineers experienced in the sphere of chemical solutions, high-grade equipment, six laboratories of the Research and Development Center.

4. In development of R&D the Group establishes close relations with worldwide raw material suppliers for active exchange of knowledge. This allows quality and fast creation of new solutions for today’s end consumers: oil and metallurgy enterprises.

Finally, established relations based on knowledge of customer’s objectives and creation of chemical solutions, up to provision of services on an industrial scale constitute the key competitive advantage of the Group. This allows global producers of chemical components as well as companies with low volumes of production work cooperatively and efficiently.

As Mirrico continued to invest in its research centres, cultivate a nurturing and knowledgeable team and extend its horizons towards lucrative foreign markets, it appears that the sky is the limit for this Russian chemical technologies company.

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