A SUBSEA firm with North-East bases has secured a renewable energy contract.

DeepOcean UK has been awarded a deal to work on the Bligh Bank Phase II Offshore Wind Farm, off the Belgian coast.

Bosses say the agreement will see the company, which has offices in Darlington, help install cables for the development.

The agreement is a significant boost for the business, which was forced to shed nearly a third of its North-East workforce earlier this year after being hit by the lower oil price and what it said was Government failures in stopping UK offshore work going to foreign rivals.

The Bligh farm is being overseen by Nobelwind NV, and the firm says it will use 50 turbines to generate power, which will be connected by cables to a substation.

DeepOcean’s contract will see it look after a number of processes, including pre-lay surveys, installation and trenching for cabling, and designing and supplying cable protection systems.

Design and engineering work has already started, with offshore work due to begin next year.

Ottar Maeland, DeepOcean’s executive vice-president for the Greater North Sea, said: “Yet again our experienced personnel prove our ability to find competitive solutions to be executed by our suite of subsea vessels and assets.

“This award of array cables installation for Nobelwind is the first commitment for our new chartered cable lay vessel being constructed by Damen Yard for delivery early 2016.”

Mr Maeland added DeepOcean’s support vessel, Deep Helder, will support cable lay operations, with its trenching support vessel, Volantis, home to the jet trencher UT-1, lined up to carry out trenching.

The firm provides engineering, design and geo-technical investigation work from a base in Darlington’s Coniscliffe Road, and runs a marine site in South Bank, near Middlesbrough, to prepare equipment for use.

However, it previously had to pare back its 136-strong North-East team by more than 40 people after battling industry challenges.

The changes were part of a wider re-organisation at DeepOcean, which has made changes to divisions in the Netherlands, Norway, Brazil and Mexico.

At the time, Tony Inglis DeepOcean UK’s managing director, told The Northern Echo it was pushing to be remain competitive.

He added: “We are bidding on many large contracts and will continue to operate with enough staff to carry out existing projects.

“We are very good at what we do and next year we’ll launch one of the largest specialist vessels in the world, the Maersk Connector, to take on more work.”