HAVING been involved in the Oil and Gas industry for almost 13 years CLS Offshore Ltd are one of the first oil and gas related companies to recognise that the existing skills of their workforce could be enhanced by additional training and adapted to work within the renewable energy industry.

HAVING been involved in the Oil and Gas industry for almost 13 years CLS Offshore Ltd are one of the first oil and gas related companies to recognise that the existing skills of their workforce could be enhanced by additional training and adapted to work within the renewable energy industry.

The Great Yarmouth based company has recently reached an historic milestone in the company's history when it installed the first of one hundred 3MW wind turbines on the Thanet Offshore wind farm.

CLS were awarded a contract by Vestas Offshore A/S for offshore installation and mechanical and electrical completion works requiring an investment in excess of �250k to train 50 technicians to meet the client's requirements.

When completed, the Thanet Offshore Wind Farm will comprise 100 Vestas V90 3MW wind turbines and have a total capacity of 300 MW. It will produce enough energy to supply approximately 240,000 homes per year and will be the largest operational offshore wind farm in the World.

With the recent announcement by the Crown Estate of the award of nine offshore wind farm licences including the East Anglian Array, consisting of approximately 1,000 turbines located 15 miles offshore of Yarmouth, CLS feel the investment in training ensures they are already ahead of the game.

Steve Johnson, Managing Director, said: 'It was a major step for the company to diversify into the Renewable Energy industry and the experience we gain on the Thanet project will ensure CLS are among the region's leading providers of expertise, readily available on the doorstep of some of the biggest windfarms in the world. We currently employ over 150 people and as a direct result of this diversification, anticipate this number to steadily rise.

“The business is an expert in Working at Height and we believe that this, along with our first class safety record, total commitment to all aspects of HSEQ and our infrastructure are the reasons we were successful in the award of this contract.'

Looking to the future, Steve added: “CLS have recognised that decommissioning of redundant offshore platforms will undoubtedly form part of our continued growth. To accommodate this we have leased facilities at Malthouse Quay, which was originally used to assemble some of the platforms that are now entering the final stages of their lifespan. With its capacity to accommodate heavy loads and geographically so close to the offshore gas fields it is ideally placed to reverse the process.”

During the last six years CLS has been involved in three decommissioning projects in the North Sea all of which were completed to the clients' satisfaction and incident and accident free. They are already involved in discussions for other decommissioning projects.

“Despite the current economic climate we managed to exceed our forecasts for 2008/2009 by 20 per cent and our current financial year is showing continued growth