Sydney-based risk management consultancy An Meб is an example of an innovative Australian business that has successfully tapped into Russia’s remarkable economic turnaround.

An Meб was founded in 1997 in Sydney and has flourished under the guiding principle that protecting people and the planet is good for business. Since those early days it has built a successful track record, working for multinational clients including Shell and its subsidiary operating companies, Chevron-Texaco and British Gas. In Australia, the companies clients include Woodside Energy and BlueScope Steel.

An Meб’s integration into the emerging Russian market started in 2002, when its two co-founders Steve Williams and Seбn O’Donnell were invited to Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far Eastern to run a health, safety and environment (HSE) audit training course for Sakhalin Energy. This internationally known operator of Sakhalin II, the world’s largest integrated oil and gas project, was then “a small oil company with one producing asset and a massive design project happening in Holland”, Williams recalled.

An Meб’s initial contract with Sakhalin Energy was worth $30,000, but quickly turned into a much larger contract of around $1.2 million, which incorporated a broader range of consulting services and lasted until the end of 2003.

Seeing massive opportunity in Sakhalin, in May 2004 An Meб and its Australian strategic partner Optimised Operations founded a Russian entity — An Meб Sakhalin LLC. “We realised that if we want to be serious about this market we have to be located in the market. We also realised that we had to be a Russian company because of Sakhalin Energy’s requirements for Russian content,” commented Williams.

Some international companies complain about difficulties connected with doing business in Russia, but not An Meб. “Establishing a business in Russia was not as difficult as we thought — once we found an accounting partner we could trust. They assisted us to navigate the Russian Federation’s corporate, tax, employment and immigration laws.

“We have found compliance with this regime at a micro level to be no more difficult than Australia. The difference is in detail — Russian Federation compliance obligations are like stepping back 30 years in Australia,” said Williams. “The bureaucratic requirements have not yet been streamlined in RF, but Russian bureaucracy is repeatable — navigate it once and it will be the same next time.”

An Meб Sakhalin LLC started with three members of staff and no clients. Now, after almost three years, the company employs some 20 people and has an annual turnover of around $3.5 million.

The ratio of Russian nationals to expatriates in the company is about 50–50. “I’m very pleased that, unlike other companies who are wrestling with the Russian content requirements, we have Russian nationals who we are billing to clients. I am grateful to Austrade who helped us to find good local professionals,” Williams commented. “Another thing that I’m really proud of is that we are a happy team. We have no less than six nationalities pulling together as a team and enjoying their work and working with each other.”

Sakhalin Energy remains An Meб Sakhalin’s main client. An Meб has been involved in the development of various HSE corporate standards and safety communications campaigns, as well as conducting HSE audit training courses for the Sakhalin II operator.

Since 2005, An Meб has also been assisting the Sakhalin Road Safety Partnership — initiated by Sakhalin Energy — to implement various road safety initiatives for the population of the entire island. Recently, An Meб Sakhalin executed contracts for development of several safety communications campaigns with another Sakhalin-based multinational oil and gas company Exxon Neftegaz Limited. At the end of 2006, An Meб Sakhalin also launched a new service to provide public subscription HSE training courses.

“I’m proud that we are growing in terms of the amount of business we are doing, that our client base is diversifying and that we are expanding into new areas of business,” Williams said.