Nico Middle East wins the Lloyds 'Innovation and Safety Award'

Apart from this category, Nico Middle East was nominated for 2 other categories - the 'Short Service Award' and the 'Energy award' under the Lloyds. This follows on the success at this year's Seatrade Awards when they were deserving winners in the 'Workboats' category. Nico International part of the engineering services arm of Topaz was also nominated under the category of 'Ship Yard of the year.'

The 'Innovation & Safety Award' was presented to Ronald Clark the General Manager of Nico Middle East Ltd. "To be nominated is an honour in itself but to win the award is of course the ultimate accolade. The award for Innovation and Safety is important for several reasons. It shows our clients and our stakeholders that we are committed to safety and to continually evolving the way we operate, to ensure a safe workplace. It feels good to be recognized in the industry and Lloyds List is a highly respected international publication. The previous awards that we have won have been specific to our sector in the industry- marine & offshore. This award was open to all shipping and shipping related companies in the Middle East so the competition was tough. Nico Middle East has grown from a 'local' company to one that can operate internationally. We know that we have a long way to go until we reach the targets that we have set for ourselves but we continue down the road of self improvement and our aim is to qualify for the Dubai Quality Award in the next two years. " says, Ron Clark.

Fazel A Fazelbhoy, Chief Executive Officer Topaz Energy And Marine Ltd said:

"This award is a fitting accolade to the continued efforts and commitment of our dedicated management team and workforce without whom this recognition would not have been secured. This has been the result of a huge amount of effort from our shore and sea staff combined with the confidence that our shareholders and customers have shown in us. I am personally very proud of what we have achieved as a company and this award reflects that achievement."

Based in Jebel Ali, Nico Middle East Ltd, is one of the leading offshore vessel owners and operators in Dubai. Its fleet is well placed to provide a wide range of marine and offshore services to the offshore industry ranging from supply, anchor handling, towing, standby, construction support duties to a variety of specialized services through its fleet of DP vessels i.e. air & saturation diving, platform maintenance, subsea maintenance, ROV Survey work, cable laying and trenching.

The fleet continues to be renewed with a further 5 new vessels scheduled for delivery in 2010 and 3 disposals of older tonnage in the same year.Our fleet modernization program has seen the company's old fleet with an average age of 24 years replaced by a modern fleet with an average age of 6 years. The new CAT crew boat which has been developed in conjunction with Nico Craft should see a new cost effective crew boat for the oil industry, that along with the implementation of full class compliant ECDIS, Satellite television and High Tech camera Systems will ensure a much safer and more pleasant environment for the crew.