Jobs boost on way with big yard order

Apr 24 2008 by Karen Dent, The Journal

MORE than 300 jobs could be created at a North East yard with a massive contract win by offshore oil and gas engineering company Heerema.

The UK arm of Dutch company Heerema, which is in Hartlepool, has won an order to build a 5,443-tonne deck and 453-tonne bridge for a platform destined for the Nexen Buzzard oilfield, 35 miles off the coast at Peterhead in North East Scotland.

The work, due to start this June and finish in 2010, will swell Heerema Hartlepool’s staff numbers from 120 to between 300 and 400. Recruitment has already started and the extra positions are expected to be filled within six months.

Frank Moran, director of the Hartlepool yard, said: “It is very important because there aren’t very many significant projects coming out of the North Sea oil and gas industry at the moment. This is one of the biggest oil fields to be discovered in the North Sea for 30 years.”

It is one of a growing number of contracts in the oil industry which is coming to the North East which economic experts believe will create thousands of jobs and double in size within years.

Around 50 North East firms are currently involved in the subsea oil sector in the region, employing 5,000 people and contributing £500m to the local economy. World leading technological expertise and soaring oil prices will fuel the boom.

Heerema’s contract win follows a large order for a deck from Nexen two years ago.

Mr Moran added: “Our reputation for high quality workmanship, safe working and completion on schedule was a key factor in Nexen’s decision to award this prestigious follow-on work to the Hartlepool yard.

“Obviously, our reputation is important. It’s a very competitive business. You also have to have a competitive price as you are competing against yards outside of the UK which may have lower prices.” The UK business is currently bidding on a number of other tenders in the oil and gas sector, as well as seeking to diversify into making equipment for coastal wind farms.

It is also particularly keen to win a slice of the forthcoming work on two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers, which are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016. Mr Moran said: “We have two yards here – we can handle a second project. We are very interested in the aircraft carrier work that is coming up for the Aircraft Carrier Alliance. It’s our type of work – for example the aircraft carrier would have modular units that form part of the upper deck.

“None of the oil and gas yards have done this type of work before.”

He said he expects to discover whether the aircraft carrier work tender has been successful by the end of this year.

The Hartlepool yard is registered as a British business and is one of three fabrication yards in the Heerema Group, which is headquartered in Switzerland. The other two yards are at Zwijndrecht near Rotterdam and Vlissingen, also in the Netherlands.

The Heerema Group, which also has marine contracting and engineering wings, employs around 2,500 people worldwide and has an average annual turnover of around £562m.

Mr Moran said it was difficult to put a figure on the Hartlepool yard’s turnover because the nature of the business meant some years were very busy while others were quiet. He pointed out that Heerema was involved with the previous Nexen Buzzard contract in 2005/6 but in 2007 the yard’s only contract ended in August.

PAGE TWO: Skills retained.