OGI Groundwater Specialists Limited is an independent, privately owned British company, incorporated in 1989. The company was founded by current managing and technical director Dr Stephen Thomas in Charlbury, Oxford.

In the early years, the company was known as Oxford Geotechnica International and undertook specialist consultancy services and training in groundwater disciplines in the UK and Europe. Many of our clients were general consultancy companies that had no in-house groundwater capability.

During the 1990’s the company expertise was engaged to support a number of projects following ground failures. It became clear to the experts at OGI that had a groundwater specialist been engaged on these projects from the start, the contractor and project would have benefited financially from specialist design and installation.

In response to this commercial opportunity, in 1997 OGI began developing specialist contracting services for the UK construction industry from a base in the North East of England, alongside the established consultancy services. The North East offers a good strategic location for OGI as it is situated approximately half way between the South of England and Scotland. Following a move to our current purpose built base at Durham in late 2006, the company changed its name to OGI Groundwater Specialists Limited, retaining a connection with the original Oxford name alongside a description which more accurately portrays the services we deliver.

Between 2004 and 2010, OGI formed a number of partnerships within the UK and Europe to provide a comprehensive design and contracting service for the installation of ground source heating and cooling systems. Projects soon built up to the size of hospitals, schools and health centres.

We continue to remain a knowledge based business but have developed practical solutions to some of the most challenging ground conditions faced by construction companies building in deep excavations. In recent years we have successfully developed design and installation capabilities to maximise the capture of heat from the ground.