Managing director and founder of JB Valves shares valuable insights from his career in the oil and gas industry
Managing director and founder of JB Valves Jonathan Balmforth shares valuable insights from his career in the oil and gas industry, from the critical challenges currently facing the subsea sector to how valve design and manufacturing is poised to change in the years ahead
WHAT IS YOUR ROLE WITHIN JB VALVES, AND HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH THE COMPANY?
I’m the managing director and founder, overseeing the full breadth of the company—from engineering strategy and product development to customer relationships and operational improvement. I’m supported by a strong core team of experts in their fields. A big part of my focus is ensuring we continue to deliver reliable valve solutions for critical subsea and high-pressure applications, while improving responsiveness, traceability, and manufacturing efficiency. Alongside JB Valves, I’m also involved in developing Majestic ERP, which gives us a real opportunity to take what we learn operationally and feed it directly back into our systems and processes.
WHAT FIRST DREW YOU TO WORK IN THE SUBSEA INDUSTRY?
The subsea industry draws people who enjoy solving genuinely difficult engineering problems. The environments are unforgiving, the standards are extremely high, and failure isn’t an option – that challenge was a big part of the appeal for me.
What I found particularly interesting was the combination of disciplines involved – precision engineering, materials science, sealing technology, testing, and long-term reliability all come together in a way that’s quite unique. When you’re designing products that may operate for years without intervention, in corrosive environments under extreme pressure, it completely changes how you think about engineering.
The industry’s collaborative nature also appealed to me. Operators, EPCs, integrators, and suppliers all have to work closely together to get the right outcomes, and that becomes even more important as systems grow more complex.
WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN IN VALVE TECHNOLOGY OVER THE YEARS?
The biggest shift has been moving away from simply supplying a component toward delivering reliability, traceability, and lifecycle performance. Customers now expect far greater visibility into materials, testing, documentation, and long-term operational performance.
There’s also been a strong push toward compact and integrated systems. Historically, systems could become very connection-heavy, which creates more potential leak paths and maintenance headaches. The industry has been moving toward manifold-based and integrated architectures to address that.
Material selection and sealing technologies have evolved considerably, too, particularly for aggressive and corrosive chemical systems, hydrogen applications, and ultra-high-pressure environments. We’re seeing growing interest in advanced alloys, engineered polymers, and pressure-energised sealing systems built for longer operational life and lower maintenance.
Digitisation has become increasingly important for both supply chain and condition monitoring. Customers want better manufacturing visibility, shorter lead times, and clearer traceability throughout the supply chain, complemented by condition monitoring.
WHAT TECHNOLOGIES IS JB VALVES BEST KNOWN FOR, AND WHAT ADVANTAGES DO THESE PROVIDE TO THE OIL & GAS INDUSTRY?
JB Valves is best known for high-integrity subsea and high-pressure valve solutions, particularly for challenging service conditions – well fluids, chemical injection, methanol, hydraulic control systems, and corrosive environments.
A core part of our approach is sealing philosophy and long-term reliability. We focus heavily on reducing leak paths, improving maintainability, and making sure products perform consistently under demanding conditions. Our range includes subsea ball valves, needle valves, check valves, double-isolation solutions, high-pressure instrumentation valves, and bespoke-engineered valve assemblies.
One of our real strengths is flexibility and responsiveness. Long lead times and supply chain rigidity are a real issue in our industry – on average, we are 50-70% shorter on delivery than the industry standard. We’ve built our operation around agility and engineering collaboration and, in some cases, have delivered complex, custom subsea valve packages in days, not months.
Traceability and quality control are also a major part of what we offer. We operate with a strong focus on documentation, material control, testing, and manufacturing visibility, all of which are critical for high-specification subsea projects.
WHAT PROJECT HAVE YOU BEEN MOST PROUD OF WORKING ON AND WHY?
One that stands out involved delivering a large package of custom subsea valves across multiple line items within a very tight timeframe, with the added complication that the new equipment had to interface with legacy systems already on the seabed. New technology combined with legacy compatibility is a genuinely difficult engineering challenge, and it added a significant layer of complexity to an already demanding project. The challenge wasn’t just the engineering – it was coordinating legacy-compatible design, manufacturing, testing, quality assurance, and logistics simultaneously without lowering standards.
What made it particularly rewarding was what it demonstrated. When engineering, operations, and systems are properly aligned, you can achieve things that would otherwise seem very difficult. It reinforced how much process discipline, communication, and proactive planning actually matter.
I’m also proud of the operational ecosystem we’ve built around the business. The integration between our engineering processes and Majestic ERP has allowed us to develop workflows and manufacturing visibility that genuinely improve how we work day-to-day.
WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES YOU’RE FACING IN THE INDUSTRY RIGHT NOW?
Lead-time pressure and supply chain instability remain significant issues across the industry. Customers are under pressure to deliver projects faster, but many supply chains are still working through capacity and disruption challenges.
Balancing innovation with reliability is another one. The industry is moving into new energy sectors, hydrogen infrastructure, and increasingly demanding environments, but the expectations around safety and proven performance haven’t changed – if anything, they’ve increased.
There’s also a growing skills challenge. Retaining practical engineering and manufacturing knowledge while adopting modern technologies and digital systems is becoming more important and more difficult at the same time.
From an operational perspective, managing complexity is probably the biggest long-term challenge. Projects now involve enormous amounts of data, compliance requirements, documentation, and multi-stakeholder coordination. Businesses that can simplify and systemise those processes effectively will have a real advantage.
WHAT KEY LESSONS HAVE YOU LEARNED DURING YOUR TIME IN THE INDUSTRY?
The biggest one is that reliability comes from culture and process just as much as engineering design. Good engineering is essential, but consistency, communication, ownership, and operational discipline are what determine long-term success. I’ve also learned that responsiveness matters more than people often realise. Customers value suppliers who communicate clearly, act quickly, and take ownership when problems arise.
Another lesson is that the first solution is rarely the final one. Continuous improvement is critical, and the best engineering teams stay open to refining ideas, improving processes, and challenging their own assumptions. And relationships matter – perhaps more than anything else. The subsea industry runs on trust, reputation, and long-term partnerships. Delivering consistently over time is far more valuable than chasing short-term wins.
WHAT CHANGES DO YOU PREDICT FOR SUBSEA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INDUSTRY OVER THE NEXT 5–10 YEARS?
I expect continued growth in system integration, digitalisation, and compact subsea architectures designed to reduce complexity and improve reliability. Hydrogen and energy transition applications will drive significant changes in valve design, sealing technologies, and material selection. Much of what the industry has learned in harsh subsea environments translates well to emerging hydrogen infrastructure – particularly in leak prevention and long-term integrity.
Brownfield tie-back projects will also become more commonplace. Operators are increasingly looking to extend the life of existing infrastructure rather than invest in entirely new developments, which brings its own engineering challenges around legacy compatibility, obsolescence support, and long-term integrity management. There will also be an increasing focus on lifecycle extension and refurbishment rather than outright replacement. Operators want to maximise asset life while controlling costs and reducing operational risk.
On the manufacturing side, I think businesses will increasingly differentiate themselves through operational excellence and digital integration – faster decision-making, clearer traceability, smarter production planning, and better customer visibility will all become genuine competitive advantages. The companies that succeed will be the ones that combine strong engineering fundamentals with agility, collaboration, and modern operational systems.
For more information visit: www.jbv.co.uk
