Our Story
An age old problem
Thousands of oil spills occur annually ranging from the high profile large-scale tanker spills to unreported accidental spills of all sizes from shipping activity and industry.
A simple solution
Oil Containment Systems was formed following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, when it became apparent that the required tools to quickly and efficiently deal with such a disaster simply did not exist. Brian Ablett collaborated with the late Wolf Herkenberg to develop Herkenberg-Ablett High Extension Technology Oleophilic Film, or HE Film for short, originally patented in Canada.
Real World testing
In 2010, the now infamous Deepwater Horizon oil spill provided an ideal test bed for Brian and the team to bring HE Film into the real world. Trialled on open water, saturated marsh land and oil slicked beaches and tidal zones, HE Film proved itself beyond all expectations.
HE is refined and redeveloped
Following its restart in the UK, the company now takes advantage of UK manufacturing facilities, producing a further improved version of HE Film itself alongside specifically designed deployment and recovery devices.
2023 and beyond
Using our newly developed devices with state of the art drone platforms and high resolution cameras, the improved HE Film has been retested, reshot and re-documented in detail to provide a comprehensive overview and guide for partnerships with businesses, governments or NGOs
Our Founder - Brian Ablett
A born entrepreneur, Brian left university (Engineering, Physics, English) after completing his first year at the age of sixteen, partly on the advice of his professors that he had a better future in business than in school. A Canadian now residing in England, he has spent his life inventing, pursuing, developing and patenting new technologies, turning ideas into start-ups, start-ups into successful companies, both public and private. Working with governments, universities, scientists and engineers all over the world, he has started more than 50 companies with products and processes that have changed the way we live, work and think. Brian thrives in environments, industries and technologies where the conventional thinking is often “it can’t be done”, always striving to transcend the limits of existing boundaries.
