Oil & Gas UK: Nominations for Eighth Annual Awards now open

Today (1 July) Oil & Gas UK has launched its quest to find the most outstanding companies and inspirational people working in the offshore oil and gas industry by opening the nominations for this year’s Awards.

The Oil & Gas UK Awards, sponsored by Shell U.K. Limited, will take place at Aberdeen’s Exhibition and Conference Centre on the evening of Thursday 6 November.

In this, the eighth year of the annual awards event, Oil & Gas UK is announcing a change to the structure of its awards categories. The two company awards, now called: the Oil & Gas UK Award for Investment in People, sponsored by Petrotechnics Limited and the Oil & Gas UK Award for Business Innovation, sponsored by BP, will both be split into two categories, one for large and the other for smaller companies.

Stephen Marcos Jones, Oil & Gas UK’s business development director, explains:

“The Oil & Gas UK Awards bring our industry together to showcase exceptional skills and enterprise demonstrated by individuals and companies across Britain.

“Following feedback from both the 2013 judging panel and Oil & Gas UK membership, we have decided to tailor our awards categories to ensure that they are compelling to companies of all shapes and sizes working in or offering services to the oil and gas industry. We hope that this strategy will encourage a greater number of smaller players in the sector to share their achievements.”

The criteria for the awards note that smaller enterprises must meet two out of three of the following measures: Less than 250 employees; less than £25.9m turnover; less than £12.5m in assets. This has been set according to guidance on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), supplied by the UK Government’s Department for Business Innovation & Skills.

In addition, the individual awards have been revised in order to simplify each category. They are: Mentor of the Year, sponsored by Chevron North Sea Limited; Apprentice of the Year, sponsored by ECITB and Graduate of the Year, sponsored by the University of Aberdeen.

Glen Cayley, upstream director for Shell UK Limited and Oil & Gas UK’s vice co-chair commented:

“We are delighted to be supporting these prestigious awards again in 2014. Recognising and rewarding excellence is of great importance to Shell and our industry as a whole. These awards provide an opportunity to celebrate the host of talent – from individual apprentices to entire business teams – which continues to develop in this diverse, exciting industry of ours.

“Judging by the quality of entries last year, we are looking forward to what we’re sure will be an inspirational evening.”

Stephen Marcos Jones concludes:

“Earlier this month, Oil & Gas UK hosted its first Oil & Gas UK Annual Conference – the biggest conference of its kind for the UK oil and gas sector in 2014. That Conference gave us the opportunity to consider the next phase of operations on the UK Continental Shelf, with topics ranging from exploration to production efficiency, and within that we were witness to the effort and innovation within our industry.

“We look forward to another annual event, the Oil & Gas UK Awards, later this year to celebrate the extraordinary teams and individuals pushing our sector forwards.”