To celebrate 12 years as part of the Johnson Matthey group we've collated our twelve defining moments for Tracerco. With three acquisitions, five awards, eight new office locations and four world's firsts Tracerco has achieved some great things over the years.
1. Acquired by Johnson Matthey
Originally, Tracerco were part of Imperial Chemical Industries' Synetix business group. They were sold to Johnson Matthey in 2002 and make up part of their Process Technologies division.
2. Winning the first Queen's Award (and then a further two)
In 2003, Tracerco received their first Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category for the Tracerco ProfilerTM. In the years that followed, Tracerco collected a further two Queen's Awards for International Trade in 2005, and then again in 2009 for Innovation for creating the world's first intrinsically safe radiation contamination monitor. Last year, Tracerco also picked up an award for innovation for their step out OptimusTM level measurement instrument from the Institute of Physics.
3. Acquiring QuestTruTec and Process Vision
Tracerco bought the Process Diagnostics division of QuestTruTec in 2006 to become the world's largest supplier of process diagnostic services. This was followed by the acquisition of Process Vision in 2009, adding new bases in Belgium and France and so expanding their European operations.
4. Monitors business hits £5.0m revenue
Radiation monitors is one of Tracerco's most recently formed business units. Over the course of five years since its creation they have grown year on year to hit £5m turnover this year. This is due to a constant program of innovation bringing new generation products to the market as well as a comprehensive after sales service, including servicing and repair, calibration as well as monitors for hire. They recently launched a web tracker to keep customers up to date on when their monitor will be returned.
5. Working 3.5 million hours – nearly 10 years - without a Lost Time Accident (LTA)
In Tracerco, safety is paramount and their diligent approach is exemplified in a record 3.5 million hours accumulated without a lost time accident (LTA). In addition, over the years Tracerco has worked hard to deliver a big reduction in average radiation dose for classified workers so that today this is significantly lower than the radiation exposure experienced in frequent fliers.
6. Overseas expansion into the Middle East, Brazil, Caspian, China, SE Asia, Australia and Europe
2009 saw Tracerco open premises in the Middle East, Oman and Abu Dhabi, respectively. More recently these bases have expanded to accommodate growing demand for our reservoir technologies. In the previous year, Tracerco opened offices in China and Australia which followed a 2005 expansion into the Caspian region. 2002 was also a landmark year for Tracerco opening their first premises in South America with an office in Rio de Janeiro and launching their Tracerco Asia base in Kuala Lumpa.
7. Delivering the world’s most successful and long lasting fuel tagging programme in Brazil (and recently adding a second in KSA)
In 2002, Tracerco won the contract to provide a fuel tagging programme to the Brazilian government to counteract fuel adulteration. This contract was re-awarded to Tracerco in 2013. A subsidised diesel tagging pilot project in Saudi Arabia will commence in 2014 making Tracerco the premier provider of these services.
8. The Tracerco ProfilerTM becoming the instrument of choice for oil & gas separation control
The Tracerco ProfilerTM entered the market in 2000 for interface control on oil/gas/water separators. It was the first and only profiling instrument of its kind and now has more than 400 units in operation. Most recently, the operating range of this instrument has been extended to enable lower and higher process temperature conditions associated with for example, desalter applications.
9. Delivering SIL2 compliant instruments for Statoil’s Asgard Project – the world’s first subsea gas compression facility
In 2010, Tracerco were awarded the contract to provide a range of subsea instrumentation to the world's first subsea gas compression facility, which will be located in the Norwegian Sea. Start up of the Asgard compressor station is scheduled for 2015, and Statoil claim this is their most technological advanced project to date.
10. Delivering a twenty fold expansion in our Reservoir business
Tracerco has been providing tracer technology to assist operators
with reservoir characterisation for over 30 years. During that period, we have refined and developed our ever-expanding range of specialised smart tracers and are the only company who can supply reservoir tracing services in all applications from oil and water inflow profiling, to interwell reservoir studies, as well as near wellbore oil and gas production monitoring. In addition, our polymer based tracer systems are designed to fit virtually any type of completion design, and provide customers with flow characterisation data over an extended time line.
11. Launch of DiscoveryTM – The world’s first subsea CT scanner
DiscoveryTM was launched last year, and for the first time ever, provides a solution to the challenge of inspecting unpiggable subsea pipelines for integrity or flow assurance issues online, in real time and without the need to remove coatings or insulation. Since then it has won the 2014 Subsea Technology Award from the Pipeline Industries Guild (PIG), and an ultra deep-water version rated to 3000m and with improved inspection resolution capabilities has been developed and will be showcased at the NASA NBL in Houston in May.
12. Construction of the Measurement Technology Centre (MTC)
Due to open this summer, construction of the brand new 61,000sq foot bespoke research and development facility to house its rapidly expanding team began in 2013 (pictured under construction, May 2014). 
The new Measurement Technology Centre, which is nearly a £10.0 million investment, will provide a custom-made facility for Tracerco’s research and development team, allowing it to more efficiently bring to market new innovative technologies for the world’s oil and gas industry.
The centre will include testing facilities for Tracerco’s award-winning instrumentation and subsea services. This includes a state of the art underwater testing tank, essential for the development of Tracerco’s rapidly expanding range of subsea products and services.
It's been a very successful and exciting 12 years and the foundations are in place to make the next 12 years even better. For this Tracerco need talented people. If you would like to be part of the next 12 defining moments for Tracerco take a look at our vacancies.
