Tyneside oil success

A Tyneside-based oil and gas engineering design organisation is on track to double its turnover and create up to 150 new jobs after a successful first year of trading.

Fabricom Offshore Services, a subsidiary of Fabricom GDF Suez UK, specialises in design and detailed engineering, maintenance and modification work to North Sea facilities and platforms, field decommissioning work and providing on and offshore services for major oil and gas companies.

The organisation aims to quadruple its workforce to 200 by 2012 after securing lucrative contract wins, including a multi-million pound deal with upstream oil and gas operator Talisman Energy (UK) to provide engineering modifications that will help connect subsea power and control systems to one of Talisman’s North Sea platforms.

Since setting up at Balliol Business Park, North Tyneside, in early 2008, Fabricom Offshore has increased staff numbers from three to over 50.

Fabricom’s decision to locate a new design engineering centre of excellence in North Tyneside was secured thanks to a £1.6m Selective Finance for Investment (SFI) grant, now branded Grant for Business Investment (GBI) from One North East, which helped support the organisation’s ambitions to create up to 250 new jobs.