PIONEERING technology has helped Great Yarmouth controls and instrumentation company, 3sun, win an £800,000 offshore contract. The company, still only in its second year, has spent the last six months working for Petrofac on the Grove field extension in the southern North Sea, about 80 miles off Yarmouth.

PIONEERING technology has helped Great Yarmouth controls and instrumentation company, 3sun, win an £800,000 offshore contract.

The company, still only in its second year, has spent the last six months working for Petrofac on the Grove field extension in the southern North Sea, about 80 miles off Yarmouth.

3sun won the first phase of the contract based on the success of previous work but clinched subsequent phases through competitive bidding.

The contracts cover the provision of a new control system and modification to the existing one for the refurbished Centrica-owned, Grove platform, previously known as Camelot CB. 3sun used its re-engineering skills and experience to make considerable cost savings in materials and offshore installation man-hours by replacing complicated instrument tubing with a single manifold device. It was designed and manufactured specifically for the project in under five weeks.

3sun director Graham Hacon said: “We're delighted that Petrofac had the confidence in 3sun and the vision to allow us to use new technology on this project. It has allowed us to demonstrate 3sun's versatility and use the complete range of our capability - design engineering, procurement, installation and commissioning.”

The platform will bring three new wells onstream. One in 2008 and two subsea tie backs by mid 2009.

The work has been fast-tracked to meet tight deadlines and 3sun recruited an extra four engineers/technicians for the project, working both offshore and at the Yarmouth base.