Photo / Dean Purcell
Petrol company Z Energy won top honours in the Deloitte Energy Excellence Awards last night.
Roger Sutton, the face of Christchurch lines company Orion after the earthquakes, won the award for outstanding contribution to the sector.
Mercury Energy won retailer of the year.
The judges said Z had a stellar year.
"The company successfully rebranded and localised an otherwise decentralised operation ... returning a healthy earnings lift in the process," they said.
The company was bought from Shell last year by Infratil and the NZ Superannuation Fund.
Contact Energy's head of renewable development, James Kilty, won young energy executive of the year and Transpower chief executive Patrick Strange won energy executive of the year.
Contact also won the inaugural innovation in petroleum award for the development with Origin Energy of the Ahuroa gas storage facility in Taranaki.
Legacy gas assets will give way to a focus on solar electricity generation.