WJA Member Spotlight: Mourik
Company name: Mourik UK
Company representative: Steve Tooey
Job title: General Manager
What water jetting services do you deliver?
Our main focus is supporting the UK’s petrochemical industry by providing high volume shutdown maintenance services.
We use non-entry high pressure water jetting to clean heat exchangers, tube bundles, columns, production vessels and tanks, and surface preparation to clean components for inspection.
We also carry out heat exchanger bolting and unbolting, tube bundle pulling and pushing and catalyst handling.
Our teams have to work safely and quickly, with a high degree efficiency, to complete projects over short periods of time, usually no more than six weeks.
What are the three most important elements of service delivery for your customers and why?
Automation – To safely and efficiently clean heat exchangers in the timescales and to the consistently high standards required, we need to use automated water jetting systems.
They allow us to clean tube bundles of any size at speed using very high flows of water. The power exerted means using hand lances isn’t an option. It also means our operatives can stand away from the water jet, controlling the process from a safe distance.
People – We invest a huge amount in our people. We carry out a lot of in-house training to develop the right mix of skills and competences our teams need to operate in a high performance environment.
This builds on the foundations of the WJA’s City & Guilds water jetting training all our operatives have.
We identify talents and aptitudes during the onboarding process, and then offer opportunities for progression as far as our people want to go.
I started at Mourik as a water jetting operative and am now the general manager. Water jetting is an industry where if you have the right attitude and application you can make a solid and interesting career in the heart of the industry.
Customer focus – Our work is fast-paced and has to be 100% centred on the needs of our customers. We believe in listening to customers, understanding their processes and challenges to ensure our services create value for them.
That includes shortening downtime, increasing production capacity, reducing emissions and of course, working to their standards, policies and procedures and developing bespoke solutions, where necessary.
What have been the business highlights for Mourik over the last 12 months?
I’m pleased to say our water jetting services have gone from strength-to-strength in 2024, with our highest ever turnover and new projects coming on stream.
We’ve also done a lot of work to open a new training school at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire. We have a vision to be the best multi-skilled contractor in the sectors we support. This training school is central to that goal.
By creating a more multi-skilled workforce, we can respond more decisively to customer projects, and complete larger and more complex work programmes faster, more safely and more sustainably.
Tell us something that you think anyone outside the industry will find amazing about your services
What most people don’t realise is the huge range of applications of water jetting and the different ways in which its power can be used.
You can have a jet of water that flows at 400 litres per minute at 10 bar of pressure that will exert a big force over a long distance. Or you can have a jet with a flow rate of 14 litres per minute at 3,000 bar that can cut steel, but loses its force within one metre.
What’s the biggest change in technology or process you have witnessed in your service sector in recent years?
The biggest change for us has been the level of automation introduced to the process. It’s improving safety, speed of service delivery and the quality of the finish we can achieve during tube bundle cleaning.
I’m proud to say Mourik has been a leader in this field. We developed the first fully automated rigid lance machine, Hydra 5.
It’s fully-automated and, combined with other technologies, including scanning systems, allows tube bundles to be cleaned with very little operative intervention.
The system also generates a report that our customers can include in their asset monitoring process.
We also work in partnership with supply chain members, notably Peinemann Equipment, on service innovation. This way, we can respond rapidly to the changing needs of our clients.
What do you think will be the biggest changes or challenges over the next 10 years?
The petrochemical refining sector in the UK is under a lot of pressure. It needs to make processes as sustainable as possible, in the widest sense.
That means using less energy, reducing emissions, creating less waste, simplifying processes and doing more in less time. This contributes to a cleaner industry, helps to control costs, and increases productivity.
Mourik is definitely up for that challenge. We’re developing innovative technologies that reduce or even eliminate the use of water and maintain performance with less energy.
As I’ve already mentioned, we’re investing in more agile and more capable multi-disciplinary teams to drive these leaner but more powerful services for customers.
Over the next 10 years, we’ll also be looking to extend our presence in other sectors, including pharma, food and biomass energy. All can benefit from the advanced water jetting solutions we offer.
What are you most proud of about the way your team supports your customers?
In 2024 we achieved a brilliant milestone, reaching one million hours of working without a lost time incident. That’s something I’m very proud of.
For that level of performance to be maintained, everyone in the team has to be focused on safety and delivering services the right way.
We’re not complacent, though. We constantly look for ways to improve. Last year, we recorded 300 near miss and improvement opportunities for making our services better and safer.
How long has Mourik been a member of the WJA?
We’ve been a member of the WJA for more than 30 years. We’ve always been strong supporters of what the association is seeking to achieve. In the Netherlands, we’re members of SIR, the WJA’s equivalent body.
Why did the company decide to join the WJA?
The WJA – and SIR, for that matter – play a very important role in sharing good practice and raising standards across the water jetting industry. They’ve also helped get end-users involved, in the debate about safety, in particular. It’s also a forum that allows us to shape our industry and where our interests are heard.
What do you think are the main achievements of the WJA?
I’m pleased with the way the organisation has developed in the last couple of years. Its new governance arrangements, with a WJA board, are already helping focus on issues that matter most. The new WJA Trade Show is a massive win for the association. It will help put water jetting on the map. I’m glad to see where the WJA’s going. Its best years are ahead.
If Mourik was an animal, what kind would it be?
I think we’d be a leopard. It has the right mix of agility, speed and power that I think defines Mourik UK, and the water jetting services we deliver.