North-east offshore entrepreneur Alfie Cheyne has re-entered the energy sector with the launch of Blue Ocean Decom, a new venture focused on the expanding decommissioning market.
Headquartered in Aberdeenshire, Blue Ocean Decom specialises in subsea removal and decommissioning services. Mr Cheyne, who founded Ace Winches, is joined in the new enterprise by Managing Director Ross Anderson. Mr Anderson is a decommissioning specialist who began his career working alongside Mr Cheyne at Ace Winches.
The company plans to create six new jobs initially, targeting projects across the UK, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Blue Ocean Decom’s service offering includes platform decommissioning, subsea infrastructure removal, asset recovery, and dredging projects.
Mr Cheyne highlighted the increasing demand for specialised subsea removal services due to the growing scale of decommissioning activity, commenting to the P&J: “I’ve spent my career backing and building specialist service businesses in the offshore sector, and the pattern is always the same – the market rewards focus. As decommissioning activity grows, subsea removal deserves the same level of specialist attention as any other critical path discipline. That’s the gap Blue Ocean Decom has been built to fill, with Ross leading a team whose entire attention is on doing this one thing extremely well.”
The offshore decommissioning market is experiencing significant expansion, driven by aging global energy infrastructure and increasing regulatory and environmental pressures on operators. This has shifted decommissioning from a late-stage obligation to a strategic industry priority.
Projections indicate the global offshore decommissioning market size is expected to increase by USD 3.40 billion, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.9% from 2025 to 2030. Another analysis forecasts growth from USD 8.08 billion in 2026 to USD 11.52 billion by 2031, at a 7.34% CAGR.
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Mr Anderson brings over two decades of offshore experience and global project leadership to Blue Ocean Decom, having managed major marine and subsea campaigns in regions including the North Sea, the Middle East, and the Asia Pacific. He commented on initial staffing plans: “It is in early build-out, with plans to bring in close to six new hires in the near term as we secure contracts, scaling further from there. We’re focused on building a strong track record in year one, with real growth projected across years two and three.”
Mr Cheyne founded Ace Winches in 1992, growing it from a small engineering workshop near Banff into an international business providing offshore lifting and handling equipment. Ace Winches was acquired by Ashtead Technology for £53.5 million in November 2023.
Despite its Aberdeenshire headquarters and focus on North Sea opportunities, Blue Ocean Decom anticipates a substantial portion of its early operations will originate from the Middle East, where Mr Anderson is based. Mr Anderson emphasised the criticality of the subsea removal phase, asserting: “A dedicated decommissioning partner to operators and Tier 1 contractors fits where the industry is heading. We’ve built this company to be exactly that.”
