TWO marine engineers have formed a partnership aimed at strengthening their market presence.

Tekmar Energy and Subsea Innovation are working together to improve sales and equipment.

Based in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, Tekmar is known for supplying cable protection for offshore wind farms, with Darlington’s Subsea Innovation recognised for apparatus maintenance and services across the oil, gas and renewable energy sectors.

Bosses say their tie-up will aid development of subsea machinery, including cable installation and protection equipment and pipeline repair systems.

They added it will also provide scope to create unique tools for offshore work, such as sea bed excavation and burial of power lines.

James Ritchie, Tekmar chief executive, said the alliance was an important step in helping the energy industry combat the lingering burden of rising costs and anxieties brought on by the lower oil price.

He said: “Both sectors, oil and gas and offshore wind, now face the same key challenge in price pressure and need to see cost and risk reduction to ensure sustainable demand.

“Within wind, we intend to leverage our customer and cabling experience with Subsea Innovation to develop new tools and equipment to support this challenge.”

Dave Thompson, Subsea Innovation managing director, added: “Partnering with Tekmar to develop new products and services in these challenging times is needed to ensure value in the supply chain.

“The team here have a wealth of offshore and subsea engineering experience that can be used to give Tekmar the opportunity to sell innovative technologies to both sectors.”

Both companies have extensive energy experience, with Tekmar earlier this year revealing it would supply 189 cable protection systems for Dong Energy’s Race Bank wind farm, off the Norfolk coast.

The contract, which will help take power from turbines and push it into the national grid, followed a similar deal with Dong to safeguard cabling on the Burbo Bank Extension wind farm, in Liverpool Bay.

Earlier this year, Subsea Innovation officials told The Northern Echo it had secured new work in Azerbaijan and Qatar and was diversifying services to offset the low oil price.

Orders included plugs for BP’s Shah Deniz gas project, which stop pipes attached to rigs decaying, clamps for operator RasGas, and maintenance of launch and recovery systems, which deploy underwater remotely-operated vehicles.

In June, it also secured a multi-million pound deal to supply repair clamps for pipelines off Australia’s North and North-West coasts.