Our Story

The Story of Swinton

We have built our industry-leading capabilities over almost 40 years spent at the cutting edge of flow computing, building from the ground up. Many members of our team have played key roles in the development of legacy flow computers and their associated metering software over several decades – most notably the S600 flow computer, which is used extensively around the world.

Our knowledge and expertise can be traced back to the 1980s and 1990s when key members of our team were part of Spectra-Tek. Spectra-Tek was founded in the 1970s. The office was situated on Outgang Lane in Pickering. Spectra-Tek, also known as ‘Speckers’, ‘S-Tek’ or just ‘ST’ was renowned for quality, from the hand-assembled equipment and machine cases all produced at the Pickering facility, through to gold-embossed lettering on the document binders. Most importantly, Spektra Tek was responsible for the development of several widely adopted flow computers – including the 869M Quantum and the Sentinel 500.

But that was only the beginning…

1970’s

Spectra-Tek mansion

In the mid 70s Spectra-Tek moved to Swinton Grange which is an Edwardian mansion built by Lord Rothschild in 1905. The gardens are magnificent and are noted for the trees – apparently Lord Rothschild’s gardener was instructed to plant one of every tree known to be grown in England. The driveway close to the house is bordered by numerous varieties of magnificent holly trees and bushes. Along with this, Swinton Grange had a pet cemetery, tennis courts, and stunning woodland that staff members would go and have picnics in at lunchtime. By 1992 Spectra-Tek had three different locations in North Yorkshire that hosted 165 staff. It was the first company to build fully electronic custody transfer measurement equipment for the oil and gas industry.

1997

The Daniel takeover

In 1997 Spectra-Tek was bought by Daniel and the business continued to grow. However, despite the business performing well, the US directors of Daniel who had been overseeing business in the UK, made the decision to sell to Emerson in 2000. As a result of this, many people left the company and sadly a lot of redundancies were made. Emerson also decided to buy the rights to the S600 which was originally developed by Spektra-Tek.

2001

Swinton Technology is born

Fast forward to 2001 Ben Leach, Jo Belsnes, Chris Wainwright, Andy Jeffrey, and Gary Marshall met to discuss a plan. They decided to pool their redundancy money together to create their very own business! By October, Swinton Technology was created. 

The name Swinton Technology was chosen because the original office was based at Swinton Grange. This name choice conveniently kept the same initials as Spectra-Tek, so the legacy lived on. The first few months were spent completing projects passed over from Spectra-Tek. Through doing this, our customer base quickly found out that Swinton Technology was made up of Spectra-Tek employees, thus, our company quickly gained a trusted and excellent reputation.

After finishing off the projects from Spectra-Tek, Gary Marshall managed to secure a major metering project to upgrade ETAP for British Petroleum. From this project, Swinton Technology snowballed into a huge range of other projects thereafter and we expanded our oil and gas metering knowledge even more.

2002

WebUI developments

In the year 2002 WebUI developments began. Web UI was a metering supervisory package, offering a web browser interface view that displayed the data collected by an S600 flow computer, providing report retrievals, events, alarms, and trending in a dynamic, colourful, and informative web browser interface. This was written in Java, JavaScript, and C++. ­

2004

MeterSuite

MeterSuite, developed in partnership with Honeywell, is a unique single technology solution for DCS and metering which negates the need for traditional flow computers. It addresses the weaknesses of bespoke systems and is a flexible, future proof metering solution. MeterSuite offers improved monitoring, management, and reporting. Take a look at the link below to find out more information about this software.

Metersuite Information

2007

One project lead to another

Then, in 2007 we landed the largest project we had received to date, which was the Sues Berth East (SBE) upgrade project for SAMREF in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. This was our first batch tanker loading system within the Middle East and 20 Omni’s were required to be configured for it. This implementation led to two other significant projects in 2011 for SAMREF, the Short Haul Berth (SHB) and Suez Berth West (SBW).

2009

Relocation, relocation

In 2009 we briefly relocated to a new premise in Easthorpe. The village is very close to Castle Howard and there was a spectacular view of the lake within Castle Howards grounds. Three months into hosting the main office at this location, and taking on a whole new wave of staff members, Swinton Technology moved to our current home in Malton. The office was purpose built to meet the requirements of our business.

After 6 months of settling into the new office and taking on even more staff, we decided to triple the size of the building. More customers were brought into the Swinton Technology customer base and projects continued to thrive. Swinton Technology made a big impact on the oil and gas industry by maintaining our great reputation. 

2011

Prognosis launched

In 2011, in partnership with DP Diagnostics, we launched Prognosis which was the world’s first condition-based monitoring package for DP meters. As well as giving accuracy for all types of DP meter, Prognosis can also be used as the basis of a risk-based maintenance strategy.

Find out more information about Prognosis.

2012

TruST, the revolutionary MSC

TruST is a custom-built Metering Supervisory Computer which is offered exclusively by us at Swinton Technology. TruST is a market-leading intuitive MSC that brings together flow computer, PLC, and CBM data to deliver peerless real-time monitoring and fiscally accurate flow measurement.

Find out more about our most renowned solution here

2013

Hello Dubai

Because of our success with landing projects in the Middle East, we made the decision to open an office in Bahrain, however, the location was not central enough for business. So, Swinton relocated this office to Dubai in 2013. In Dubai we were situated in HDS Tower and had a captivating view of the shimmering lakes Emirates golf club and Sheikh Zayed Road bordering Jumeirah Lake Towers.

2019

EyeMet is born

Development for EyeMet began in 2015 at the Swinton Technology office in Malaysia, and has been developed from its initial concept into a fully functioning metering management information system. EyeMet provides a high-level overview of the status and performance of companies metering system. Whether you have a single metering station, or you have sites globally, EyeMet collects all that data into one place making it easier for you to view the status of your systems. It has many beneficial features such as live uncertainty, SMS alerts, maintenance activity scheduling, Condition Based Monitoring, documentation, and visual system health indication.

For further information about EyeMetplease click here.

2019

New horizons

In 2019 we made the decision to close our Dubai office due to an increased focus on localisation within Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries. The Swinton Technology management team decided to take on Donald Angus as our new GCC Business Development Director to lead the operation to ensure that ST provide local employment and offer services, training and support for the Middle East.

2020

Our story continues

Our story continues as we strive constantly to grow our knowledge and develop ever more innovative metering solutions that meet the demands of the oil and gas industry. We have an expanding customer base that includes many international operators, such as BP, Shell, Total, Saudi Aramco, Petronas, Chrysaor, Maersk Oil and Centrica. Now in 2021, we have our highest ever level of metering projects and engineering staff. Our focus remains the same as it did from the beginning, to be the leading solutions and support provider for oil and gas metering computer systems across the globe.

2022

Sensia Aquisition

On March 1st 2022, Sensia acquired Swinton Technology. The acquisition incorporates Swinton Technologies products and solutions into the Sensia portfolio, expanding Sensia’s metering opportunities and measurement domain expertise to support accelerating its customers on their digital transformation journey. We are excited for the future of this aquisition and for the many opportunities to follow.