A UK subsea fastener specialist is creating jobs and investing in its site after its longest-standing customer extended a contract worth up to £3m a year until 2029.
West Special Fasteners, based in Dronfield, Derbyshire, has renewed an ongoing frame agreement with the customer, a major international company working across offshore oil and gas, floating production, storage and offloading vessels (FPSOs) and renewable energy.
A key factor is West Special Fasteners’ global approval as an ExxonMobil supplier, which includes specialist approval for hot-forged super duplex bolting. Together with its NORSOK approval for hot-forged super duplex, it means the customer can use the firm’s products on projects for operators including Equinor, Shell and BP, as well as in offshore wind and renewables.
The certainty of the three-year agreement has secured jobs in the firm’s production team and is allowing it to expand, with six new roles: two sales staff, a USA-based business development manager, an operations director, an operations manager and a production process improvement and training manager. It is also building a new operations office and a bespoke sales pod on site.
West Specialist Fasteners, which employs 70 people, makes around 850,000 components a year – bolts, nuts, studs and washers in high-nickel alloys, stainless steel and titanium – for subsea pipelines and underwater foundations. They are designed to resist saltwater corrosion, constant buffeting from currents and extreme cold, and are tested in UKAS-accredited laboratories for impact, corrosion and performance at very low temperatures.
James Hawkins, CEO of West Special Fasteners, said: “Being asked to continue with such a major customer is a real endorsement of the quality and performance of our products and gives us a strong platform for our growth plans. We’re proud that our fasteners are used on projects for the world’s biggest energy companies and, with the Government having recently announced that investment in energy, in both oil and gas and renewables, is set to continue, this extension couldn’t be better timed.”
West Special Fasteners won the King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation in 2026. Its fasteners hold together structures including a Triton submersible that has dived to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the Helix Bridge in Singapore and the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth. It is also supplying bespoke, high-integrity stainless steel fastenings to the National Museum of the Royal Navy for the conservation of HMS Victory.