Sometimes (actually often!) when screening companies and then doing the deep dive prior to initiating a position, important details don't really sink in properly.

Shareholders of $DUR will today have received the latest edition of the company magazine, and one aspect of it really made me sit up and pay attention (turn to pages 20-21.)

While I understood that $DUR was extending its core focus of asset remediation and extension to the energy sector, via the acquistion of WPF (Wilson's Pipe Fabrication), its passed me by how significant this move is in the context of the challenge over the next 2-3 decades of decommissioning Australia's offshore oil and gas facitilies. (This is actually embarassing, because I have been involved for 25+ years in the energy sector!!) By this I mean that I noted the scope potential, but didn't fully grasp the materiality or the opportunity or the broader strategic fit for $DUR.

"There are more than 1,000 oil and gas structures in Austrlian water. The Australian Petroleum Product and Exaplorations Association (APPEA) estimates that decommissioning these facilities could cost $50 billion over the next 30 years."

So the penny dropped: a deep core corporate capability in existing asset remediation and extension + an acquired oil and gas industry construction capability + innovative tech in remote asset mapping (MEND) - which will be hugely applicable in the offshore environment.

There are also multiple barriers to entry in this sector: Offshore + Oil & Gas.

This is a major potential multi-decadal growth driver for $DUR and I didn't properly consider this in my investment thesis. Some oversights are fortuitous!

Disc: Held in RL and SM