THE cream of the UK oil and gas industry was honoured at an award ceremony in the north-east last night.
More than 500 people turned up at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre to celebrate the achievements of a sector still reeling from the impact of a surprise tax grab in this year’s Budget.
Last night’s 2011 Oil and Gas UK Awards sought to reward some of the people and firms striving to help the industry prosper in a difficult economic climate.
The award for overall excellence went to Ann Davies, a well-intervention engineer at BP, who won the honour for overall excellence. She was nominated by BP for leadership qualities she showed in a particularly challenging well intervention in the North Sea during 2010: a project which involved complex logistics and the use of highly specialised technology on an unmanned installation.
The young technician of the year award was presented to John Piper, an instrument technician at BP Exploration, while the accolade for mentoring went to Petrofac platform trainer Paul Martin.
In the corporate categories, the award for people development went to Cape and Aberdeen-based RBG took the business efficiency prize.
Presenting the awards was Sir Robert Smith, Liberal Democrat MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine. He is joint vice-chairman of the UK Offshore and Gas Industry Group.
Guests included Scottish Energy Minister Fergus Ewing, Lord Taylor of Holbeach and MPs Dame Anne Begg and Malcolm Bruce.
OGUK chief executive Malcolm Webb said: “The Oil and Gas UK Awards allow us to celebrate the people and companies with the energy, expertise and pioneering approach to addressing the challenges presented in a mature province such as the UKCS (UK continental shelf).
“Our industry is hugely dynamic, thanks to the diverse range of companies involved; from the largest operators and major contractors to the seedbed of smaller companies developing really exciting, specialised services. It is this very dynamism that moves our industry forward and we have seen some exciting major new projects, worth billions of pounds of investment and many thousands of jobs approved for development in recent weeks.
“In stark contrast, however, many smaller projects have been put on hold because of the tax changes announced in the Budget.”
Principal sponsor of the awards was Shell UK.
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