The Leader of The Highland Council, Councillor Drew Hendry has welcomed today’s announcement that the Global Energy Group, owner of Nigg Energy Park, is launching a Highland-wide recruitment drive to find an additional 400 skilled personnel in a wide range of energy disciplines to support their existing labour force in the delivery of contract work.
Councillor Hendry said: “The Council’s programme places the highest priority on sustainable economic growth and economic recovery. We have invested directly in Nigg through the vacant and derelict land fund and I am on the board of the pioneering Nigg Skills Academy. This week’s census figures show the Highlands is a place with a strong future where more people are want to live, work and study. We look forward to continuing to work with Global Energy and the local supply chain to fulfil the potential of Nigg and other strategic industrial sites in the Highlands.”
With a growing order book at Nigg for the next two years, the company has recently secured significant rig refurbishment contracts, which will get underway in the opening weeks of 2013.
Over the coming weeks they aim to augment their existing large labour force by hiring trades people including welders, pipe-fitters and platers, on long-term contracts. They are also aiming to recruit personnel in areas such as project management and other senior project positions.
Global is launching its recruitment drive this week with an advertising campaign throughout the Highlands and hopes to capitalise on the legacy of past years which saw some 10,000 people working at the Ardersier and Nigg fabrication yards. The company feels that many people are taking a real interest in the resurgence of Nigg and would welcome the chance to gain employment there. Global has also set up a dedicated web page, where candidates can apply easily online.
There are currently 800 personnel at Nigg Energy Park, working on a variety of energy industry projects as well as the regeneration of the 238-acre site itself where some £12 million has already been spent on improving the facilities, including the six fabrication shops; the dry dock and gate, the creation of a tarred road going through the site; refurbishment of offices for clients and existing staff and the creation of dedicated accommodation units for rigs coming into the dry dock.
Global Energy purchased Nigg Yard in October 2011. With a sheltered deep-water anchorage and one of the largest dry docks in Europe, the site had played a vital fabrication role in the development of the North Sea Oil industry from the early 1970s, employing around 5,000 people at its height. However, much of the facility had lain unused since 2002.
Reopened as Nigg Energy Park and with a major investment and redevelopment programme continuing, the facility is emerging as the key energy hub in the North of Scotland. The park is now a hive of activity. Work is in progress there on a range of projects supporting various sectors of the energy industry, including the manufacture of complex subsea infrastructure for the North Sea and highly specialised fabrication of modules to support the single biggest nuclear construction project in the UK.
Earlier this year, the innovative Nigg Skills Academy, which is funded by the Scottish Funding Council, Skills Development Scotland and Highlands and Islands Enterprise in partnership with Global, was officially opened by Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond.