Leading lights of the subsea oil and gas sector honoured at prestigious industry awards
15th February 2008
15 February 2008
Oil and gas industry body Subsea UK will announce the winners of its second annual business awards at a gala dinner, sponsored by Acergy, in Aberdeen tonight (13 February 2008).The Subsea Business Awards 2008 highlight the hard work and excellence of subsea organisations and individuals from across the UK involved in all aspects of the subsea industry.
Expro North Sea Ltd won the award for Subsea Company of the Year. One of the UK’s oil industry success stories, Expro started out as a small Yarmouth-based service company before developing into a global player with a turnover that increased 73% to £519million in 2006/07. With an international profile as the market leader in some key subsea technologies, more than 90% of the world’s subsea developments credit an Expro product or service as an important factor in successfully bringing the prospects to production.
Best Newcomer to the Subsea Industry was Brinker Technology. Originally a spin-out company from the University of Aberdeen, Brinker Technology is best known for Platelets® - an innovative technology for leak location and sealing based on the human body’s own healing mechanism. The company, which employs 20 people, is on course to become a multi-million international business and is rapidly gaining a reputation for innovative engineering solutions and pipeline integrity in the global oil and gas industry.
In order to recognise the new talent coming into the industry, the award for Best Young Personality of the Year went to Klaire Evans of Brinker Technology.
Evans, 27, joined as a project engineer involved in the testing and development of Brinker’s unique Platelet technology before moving into a sales and marketing position in 2006. She was promoted to business development manager in 2007 and is now Brinker’s central focal point for client interactions dealing with senior subsea engineers around the globe. She was the youngest ever female presenter of a paper at the Offshore Technical Conference in Houston and has secured major contracts and led the company’s expansion strategy into the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil.
The award for Greatest Individual Contribution to the Subsea Industry went to Dave Turner. Turner has a history stretching back almost 30 years in subsea oil and gas.
From his early days with BP as an assistant maintenance engineer on Forties, Turner has risen through the ranks, combining his technical and leadership skills to deliver outstanding business results in a truly challenging environment.
In 2004 he became manager of BP’s North Sea Subsea Business, managing the separate North Sea subsea teams into a single coherent organisation and in doing so, became the recognized focal point both internally and externally for subsea in BP North Sea. In September 2007 he transferred to Houston to become the first subsea operations manager for the Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Business.
As his experience and influence has grown, Turner has sought and delivered internal and external subsea initiatives, playing a key role in the overall development of the subsea industry within the UK. In recognition of his wider role, he received the SUT’s 2005 David Partridge Memorial Award for Leadership, Innovation and Excellence in the subsea business.
Commenting on the winners, Subsea UK chief executive David Pridden said: “As always these awards highlight those that have made a difference to our sector and ensure that constructive activities are recognised and honoured. The UK subsea sector has so much to be proud of and this recognition will be part of the celebration of our industry’s continued success.”
The Subsea 08 Conference – A View to the Future – takes place today (13 February 2008) at the AECC and the sell out Subsea 08 Exhibition, Europe’s largest Subsea showcase, will welcome visitors on February 14th, also at the AECC.
