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North-east firms celebrate success at subsea awards

Stats Group's Ron James, right, takes trophy for global export from David Rennie, Head of energy and low carbon transition, Scottish Development International, at Subsea UK's annual awards in Aberdeen. Photo by Ross Johnston/Newsline Media
Stats Group's Ron James, right, takes trophy for global export from David Rennie, Head of energy and low carbon transition, Scottish Development International, at Subsea UK's annual awards in Aberdeen. Photo by Ross Johnston/Newsline Media

A number of north-east businesses triumphed at an awards scheme heralding achievements made in the global growth of the “blue economy”.

Aberdeenshire pipeline specialist Stats Group was crowned Global Export winner at Subsea UK’s annual awards in Aberdeen last night while Aberdeen-based subsea technology company Verlume received the Innovation & Technology award.

Richard Knox from Verlume, right. Photo by Ross Johnston/Newsline Media

The annual gongs celebrate the achievements of companies and individuals across the UK industry.

The ceremony took place during Subsea Expo – Europe’s largest subsea-focused exhibition and conference – at P&J Live.

Organised by the Global Underwater Hub (GUH), the gala dinner was attended by more than 400 people.

Stats Group, based in Kintore, specialises in pressurised pipeline isolation, hot tapping and plugging services.

Stats Group

In December it announced it was being sold to Australia-listed SRJ Technologies in a £73million deal.

It employs 160 people in the north-east, and has operations in Canada, the US, Middle East and Malaysia.

In 2020 it reported pre-tax profits of more than £1 million.

Winners with north-east connections

Verlume was launched in 2013 by Richard Knox and Rob Cowman.

Until recently known as EC-OG until it opted for a new name that was more in line with its ambition to become a “clean technology leader”.

Verlume’s top team of, l-r, finance director Sharon McGinty, chairman Bob MacDonald, managing director Richard Knox, operations director Jonny Moroney and business development director Paul Slorach.

Following the rebrand, the company raised £2.5 million in a further funding round led by Edinburgh-based venture capital firm Par Equity, which took an initial stake in the business when it led a £1.6m investment round in 2020.

The company’s flagship Halo product will be part of a world-first autonomous offshore power sea trial off the coast of Hawaii this quarter.

The Cross Sector Innovation award, sponsored by Havfram UK, went to DCN Diving which is headquartered in the Netherlands but has an office in Dyce.

Meanwhile, the Innovation in Safety award was presented to Norwegian-headquartered  DeepOcean which has an office in Aberdeen’s Kingswells.

“Scale of global opportunities”

GUH chief executive Neil Gordon said: “The calibre of the finalists and winners for this year’s awards was testimony to the outstanding innovation, technology, talent and leadership which continued across the industry despite the challenges created by the pandemic over the past two years.

“It was fantastic to be able to celebrate those achievements and successes in person at what is one of the first major events to take place since restrictions eased.

“What was clear too, was the growing emphasis on cross-sector collaboration which highlighted the opportunities that have arisen, and are being grasped, in alternative markets and sectors.

“This appetite for diversification and the ingenuity which has grown with it, is evident right across the underwater industry.

“There’s a renewed sense of optimism and an excitement about what lies ahead with an unprecedented scale of global opportunities in both energy transition and the wider blue economy.”

Host of award winners

Gloucester-based MAATS Tech won the prestigious company of the year award, which was sponsored by Viper Innovations.

David Bruton, director subsea at Crondall Energy, was honoured for his contribution to the industry.

The chartered engineer has more than 40 years’ experience as a specialist in pipelines and associated facilities in oil and gas.

Basingstoke-based Aquatec Group was named Best Small Company.

The Emerging Talent award was presented to Edris Joonaki, fluid properties expert and technical lead at TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory in Glasgow.