Catch up with Technica as it marks its 20th anniversary and announces exciting new changes
Built from the ground up by a close-knit collective of highly skilled engineers and technicians, Technica is an independent company providing its clients with a comprehensive portfolio of multi-disciplinary project services, including EPC, design, fiscal metering, functional safety, software engineering, integrated control systems, system integration and site construction/installation services. Based in North East Lincolnshire, the organization manages major multi-million-pound projects all across the globe, with a particular focus on supporting the owners and operators of UK natural gas and renewable gas transmission and distribution assets.
It’s been two years since Energy, Oil & Gas last sat down with Technica. Without doubt, the energy sector has seen a multitude of changes and challenges, but
between delivering exciting projects and launching a brand-new company, it’s evident that Technica’s dynamism and industry expertise continues to epitomize project management excellence across the global energy supply industry. Eager to learn more about Technica’s development over the past couple of years, Energy, Oil & Gas recently caught up with Richard Law, Director of Business Development at Technica and Managing Director of the newly launched, Technica Measurement, and Steve Stocks, Operations Director of Technica Measurement, who shared valuable insight into the company’s operations and current industry developments.
“The past few years have been very busy and challenging in many ways,” Richard begins. “We saw an unusually high spike in activity and revenue in the early part of this period caused by the alignment of three major projects all requiring delivery within the same timeframe. We learnt a lot of useful lessons during this period (some painful!) and, whilst it wasn’t something we would want to necessarily repeat, it has made us more aware of our strengths, provided a revised direction of travel for the business and in many ways, allowed us to enhance our list of supply chain partners and sub-contract service providers.
Major project delivery
“One of the most significant challenges to overcome was the herculean effort to recruit and then manage over 80 skilled technicians across the portfolio of installation projects, coupled with the requirement to ensure that the quality of our work did not suffer with the influx of new personnel.”
Having succeeded throughout this tricky period, Technica has now settled back into its steady routine and is undergoing some exciting structural changes. One major development has been the launch of Technica Measurement (www.technicameasurement.com) a subsidiary company of what is now the Technica Group. Eyeing the emergence of hydrogen and carbon capture economies, Technica Measurement aims to grow into one of the UK’s top specialist measurement companies under the leadership of Richard, Steve, Marc Baynham and John Davison. This develops further on Technica Group’s fiscal metering and flow measurement capabilities gained through supporting the downstream sector. Richard tells us more about the motivation behind this development.
“In a roundabout way, Technica Measurement has always existed within Technica as our service department since we were successful in winning a measurement support contract for (what was then Centrica Storage) at Easington Terminal and for Gassco at the Langeled Reception Facility in 2021. Alongside this, Steve Stocks (who, many moons ago, was an apprentice for John Davison our owner) made it known that he was looking for a new challenge, so, after a few discussions and some analysis of the existing market and potential competitors, we decided that it made perfect sense to break the Service Department away from the core business and give it the right foundations to grow into something really special: a business 100 percent focused on delivering accuracy, excellence and ensuring asset integrity.”
“Since then, we have managed to build upon our existing contracts at Easington Terminal and Langeled through provision of complete measurement management services and we are now supporting a major terminal in Teesside and one in Scotland, as well as providing measurement consultancy for a number of asset operators and other design houses,” Steve explains.
Technica Group’s unparalleled commitment to client care is just one of the factors contributing to its consistent volume of major projects and contracts. For example, the company is currently working on numerous projects, including R&D, some traditional asset upgrades and larger scale infrastructure projects. One of the business’ more significant recent projects has been the Grain LNG Capacity 25 project in Kent, where it worked alongside WSP and Murphy Group on the design and now through the construction phase, demonstrating its dedication to clients and collaborators alike. Additionally, the company extends this dedication to its supplier network, which, as a result, is a catalyst for the development of longstanding relationships.
“Our company ethos is about building long term relationships, and this is as important with our supply chain as it is with our clients. Without a robust, strong and diverse supply chain, we are unable to optimally support our clients, which is why we focus on ensuring that we create something far deeper than a simple transactional relationship,” Richard reveals. “We would like to think that working with the Technica Group is more of a partnership where we can all share in the success of a job well done. We communicate our expectations to our suppliers in a clear and understandable way and then provide support to ensure that they are able to deliver on them.”
Growth trajectory
As we celebrate the beginning of 2025, Technica Group is looking forward to another busy, successful year. Richard and Steve share the business’ plans for the future. “2025 looks like it is going to be another busy year. For the core business, we expect to be supporting our gas distribution customers with the delivery of their Ofgem RIIO GD2 works which will draw to a close in 2026,” Richard explains. “We are looking to deliver another critical cyber security project for an important client and see this as a growth area for the business. We’re also looking to enhance our relationship with a transmission network operator and are exploring some international LNG and energy projects with a number of different clients.”
“Technica Measurement will continue to provide its clients with the specialist support they need to operate their offshore assets and gas terminals,” Steve elaborates. “With our eye very much on growth, we will seek opportunities to undertake more consultancy work for the upstream and downstream sectors in both the measurement of natural gas but also in the development of hydrogen networks. By the end of 2025, we would expect to see Technica Measurement becoming a well-established organization and one of the ‘go-to’ measurement companies in the UK.”
As our interview draws to a close, Richard highlights the differentiating factor that makes Technica Group stand out amongst its competitors: “We see some organizations within our market sector making unquantifiable claims to be ‘World Leading’ and ‘Best in Class’; at Technica Group we prefer to do an excellent job and then let our clients form their own opinion.”
With its stellar reputation, it’s clear to see that Technica Group will continue upon its strong growth trajectory, bettering project management for the global energy sector for many more years to come.