THE ambitious young North East subsidiary of a major international renewables and oil and gas company is aiming for a £80m-£100m turnover in the next couple of years.
Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical, based in Stockton, only opened for business a year ago and now has around 40 staff. It plans to recruit 20 more.
The firm, which specialises in subsea pipe cable installation, burial and trenching, is part of the Norwegian-backed and London-based Reef Subsea Group and also has an office in Aberdeen.
Daryl Lynch, managing director of the Stockton business, said: “The company itself did a very good project on an offshore wind farm, they set it up and was able to attract a really good offshore team. I set up the office here and recruited the right people.
“In September last year, we were just putting the desks in. We have won 12 contracts this year – it’s thanks to everyone’s hard work and efforts.”
He said Reef chose Stockton for the business because the North East has the right skillset for the oil and gas and renewables sectors.
“We have a lot of oil and gas and renewable skills, mainly in the supply chain, but they can be brought into the company,” said Lynch.
“It is building the company for the future.”
The Stockton firm has secured a £40m cable-laying contract for a giant wind farm being constructed off the Welsh coast which will take a year to complete.
Lynch said: “We have just signed a contract for the Gwynt-y-Mor project for RWE off the North Wales coast to lay and bury 161 cables.
“Once that gets power, it’ll be the largest offshore wind farm in Europe.
“We have a second vessel which has been working in oil and gas since April this year and we have laid cables for Centrica off the Lincolnshire coast.”
Reef has just launched a new jet trencher machine, built by Newcastle-based Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd (SMD), which can operate in water up to 2,000m deep.
“It allows us to move into oil and gas as well renewables and also target the European sectors,” said Lynch.
“It is part of the strategy of growing the organisation.”
Although Lynch said he was not in a position to reveal the business’s turnover, he added: “We’ve got ambitions to be a £80m-£100m turnover company in the next year or two.”
Parent group Reef Subsea is a middle-size contractor, which operates the renewables and oil and gas sectors from information risk management and construction, installation and burial and dredging and excavation services.
It is made up of Reef Subsea Norway and Reef Subsea UK, and in addition to Reef Subsea Power & Umbilical, it also runs Reef Subsea Dredging & Excavation and Specialist Subsea Services.
The group has clients operating in deep-water and demanding environments in the North Sea, Americas, Middle East and South-East Asia areas.
