A Great Yarmouth-based electronics specialist is seeking new business in the oil and gas industry at an event in Houston later this month.

Officials from C-MAC Micro Technology will be show-casing their high-temperature micro-circuit capabilities at the World Oil HPHT drilling and completions conference on September 28-29.

The company, which has a �20m turnover and more than 200 staff, is based in South Denes, is well known for its work developing products used in the aerospace industry.

But it believes its high-temperature hybrid microcircuit technology can also be adapted for demanding applications, such as drilling, geothermal wells and deep-hole mining.

The failure of a measurement tool while drilling a 20,000ft deep well can easily incur a two-day delay, which for an offshore platform can equate to millions of dollars in lost production.

In complex drilling environments, operators are increasingly relying on electronic sensors and signal conditioning to acquire real-time data in down-hole measurements.

But these electronic sensors and controls need to be capable of withstanding extremes of vibration and temperature.

Mike Woolsey, the company's oil and gas business development manager , said C-MAC can provide custom microelectronic solutions to reduce unnecessary and costly downtime due to the failure of short lifetime electronics equipment.

'We have been developing a process for high temperature electronics for a couple of years, and we see oil and gas as an area of growth for our company over the next few years,' he said.

'It's using the same type of product but building on our aerospace expertise while opening up new industries to us.

'We are looking at forging new relationships and partnerships with companies which will improve the order book.'