A NORTH-East company has expanded into new premises after positioning itself in a niche market and benefitting from the buoyant onshore exploration sector.

Petroleum Safety Services Limited (PSS) was set up in 2006 by Jonathan Foster to provide planning and safety services to the petroleum industry.

Having started in a small office, the company has now moved into UK Steel Enterprise's Innovation Centre on the Kirkleatham Business Park in Redcar to give it the space and facilities it needs to continue growing.

The company has already worked with multi-national clients such as Centrica, EDF Energy and Scottish and Southern Energy in the underground gas storage sector as well as a large number of smaller oil companies.

Individual projects have included drilling operations in Lincolnshire for Wingas Storage UK and Europa Oil & Gas and in Yorkshire for Viking UK Gas and Rathlin Energy.

Internationally, the company has provided health and safety supervision in India for RPS Energy and ground vibration monitoring for Oxydental Petroleum.

With more than 16 years experience in the oil industry, Mr Foster was keen to use his wealth of expertise within his own company and provide a service with a no nonsense approach to companies in the sector.

"We have been busy since the earliest days," he said. "We work alongside a sister engineering company, Moorhouse Drilling and Completions, and the partnership ensures that we can provide our clients with every service they need for drilling management."

PSS covers everything from seismic survey management, permit administration, land acquisition and well-site construction costs analysis to planning applications, site consultancy and drilling safety supervision.

"We are in a niche market and it is generally buoyant thanks to increasing demand for oil and gas and the security of its supply," said Mr Foster. "Since starting PSS the plan has been for steady rather than rapid growth and the strategy is paying off. I expect our current team of three to increase before too long.

"We like to use local suppliers whenever possible and have been able to work with website designers and other companies that are also based in the centre."

Nick Johnson of UK Steel Enterprise, said: "This is exactly the sort of expanding young company that our two centres at Redcar and Hartlepool are designed to support."