North East engineering firm OSBIT Power has lined up more than £10m of new projects in the last nine months – which is leading to the firm expanding its workforce.
OSBIT, established four years ago and based in Riding Mill in Northumberland, has secured 23 projects ranging in value from £5,000 to £3m. They are mainly for design and build of complex offshore systems and are for nine different customers including many of the largest offshore contractors in the world.
On top of a workforce of 35, the company is hoping to recruit another eight in the coming months. The company aims to attract outstanding engineers to the region and help to retain capable students and encourage them to work locally and keep supporting the North East economy.
Last year turnover was £1.4m, but this company year they are on target to dramatically increase that as the company carries out more work in the oil & gas, offshore wind, wave and tidal stream, submarine telecom and defence sectors.
The company initially targeted the offshore wind market and developed the MaXccess system to provide safe transfer system to enable people on small boats to safely transfer on and off offshore turbines. This is still the only system to be successfully deployed commercially and customers include Siemens, Statoil, Dong and now Marubeni. More recently OP has expanded into the wider offshore oil and gas market.
Among the 23 projects OSBIT Power has secured are a 150t shock absorber for Technip – which is already working offshore; a 35m MaXccess P35 gangway for Subsea 7 – due to be delivered in August then to Angola in a joint project with Tyne Gangway, and a 60t SWL trenching vehicle launch and recovery system, for delivery in November.
The company has recently delivered a cable lay deck spread and quadrant supplied to Technip Offshore Wind – currently operating at Westermost Rough for Dong Energy; a 200t fatigue test rig for a major product supplier – with delivery this month; a MaXccess T18 wind turbine access system supplied to Marubeni, operating at Fukushima in Japan and twin ROV launch and recovery systems for a new-build semi-submersible – with delivery on schedule for January 2015.
Tony Trapp, Managing Director of OSBIT Power, said: “These are all large scale and high-profile projects right across the world.
“After only four years, we have already gained a solid reputation for tech-driven solutions. It helps that we are a small and agile firm that can respond quickly to clients’ demands.”
Press Release, July 16, 2014; Image: technip