Energy stars recognised

The stars of the North East’s oil and gas, nuclear and offshore renewables sectors have been recognised at the annual NOF Energy awards.

The Company of the Year title was picked up by Phusion, formerly known as Pearson Harper, a Billingham-based company that provides engineering information management services, consultancy and hosted software solutions.

Phusion was awarded the title for its innovation, significant growth in international markets over the past 12 months and the company’s ability to adapt to handle future expectations in the industry.

The company also won the International Business Award for delivering significant growth in exports. Over the past five years, it has trebled its staff worldwide and now receives 80% of its revenues from its work internationally.

Meanwhile, OSBIT Power, a Northumberland based company that provides innovative engineering solutions in offshore markets, collected the Innovation and Technology Award.

Judges acknowledged that the firm had researched the market to identify a clear innovation opportunity, had developed a robust, but unique, solution to a real industry problem and had overcome significant problems during the development process before receiving clear endorsement from industry leaders.

James Watmore of Darchem Engineering, an award-winning world class engineering company based at Stillington, Stockton-On-Tees, won the award for the Best New Talent.

James, who completed an Advanced Apprenticeship and trained as a welder/fabricator at South West Durham, had already gained national recognition in the sector as Nuclear Apprentice and Supply Chain Apprentice of the Year.

He is now a manufacturing engineer at Darchem Engineering and is set to continue his academic studies through Higher Education.

The new award for Energy Sector Diversification was won by DeepOcean, a provider of safe, high quality, innovative services and technologies for the subsea industry.

DeepOcean won the title for its strong strategic commitment to diversification, could demonstrate strong turnover, profit, employment and investment benefits and had a clear understanding of the future market opportunities and how their experience and technology could set them apart from their competitors.

NOF chief exec George Rafferty said: “The energy sector supply chain is a jewel in the crown of British industry and the UK economy.  The NOF Energy awards recognise the continuing excellence being demonstrated by companies within the supply chain, both within the UK and internationally, as well as the innovative approaches to meeting the technical and commercial challenges of a truly global industry and rightly celebrates these achievements.”