200 jobs saved in Port s fast track move
|
|
200+ jobs saved in Port's fast-track move
26/04/2010
New assembly facility for energy work
More than 200 jobs have been secured in Scotland’s eastern Highlands after the region’s leading industrial port moved quickly to accommodate a major new plant.
Foundations have already been laid for a new assembly facility for oil and gas and renewable energy work, after Cromarty Firth Port Authority completed a ‘fast-track’ lease with the Global Energy Group.
The initiative meets the company’s urgent requirement to move from their Nigg fabrication yard premises, just a few miles away, by the end of May.
Now about 220 jobs will transfer to the new facility located close to deep water at the Invergordon Service Base, where large subsea, topside and renewables structures will be assembled by Global’s subsidiary, Isleburn.
Despite the move’s multi-million pound cost, Global were keen to keep the operation in the Highlands, where Isleburn originated 24 years ago, and which is emerging as a UK hub in energy sectors from oil and gas to offshore wind and marine renewables.
Port authority manager and harbourmaster Ken Gray said: “We saw the need to quickly finalise a lease on the land and allow an early start on construction of the new building. There was an urgent requirement to keep the employment in the area and retain a wide range of valuable skills to maintain the region’s strong momentum in the energy sector.
“By securing this operation here in the Highlands, we have also helped to underpin our ambition for the Cromarty Firth, with its world-leading port and harbour infrastructure and skill-sets, to become a centre of excellence in servicing energy industry needs, from rig inspection to subsea and from offshore wind to wave and tidal.”
Isleburn expect to be in the new building by the end of July. “This company has an enviable reputation for skilled engineering and fabrication, in the oil and gas and renewables sectors,” said Roy Macgregor, chairman of parent company Global.
“We were having to leave Nigg for understandable reasons relating to its own future but, despite approaches from other areas outside the Highlands, we were determined to stay here. However, there are not many alternative locations combining all the right facilities, so it is a considerable relief that a rapid solution could be found with the port authority’s help.”
He revealed that, though a brief period of uncertainty prevented Isleburn bidding for contracts, the fast-track solution has enabled bids to go in on some major new oil and gas contract work.
We have become
Isleburn’s recent renewables activity has included building prototype and demonstrator marine energy generators. The company also assembled, erected and loaded-out two of the world’s largest wind turbines, at 5 megawatts each, for use in the world’s first demonstration offshore windfarm at Beatrice in the North Sea.
|