Yard opens its doors to an extra 400 workers
FURTHER jobs could be created next spring at the Inverness company which yesterday provided a pre-Christmas boost by announcing it was seeking 400 skilled workers.
Global Energy Group chairman Roy MacGregor hinted a major renewables deal was on the cards for his company after stating the existing 800-strong workforce at Nigg Energy Park was about to grow by 50 per cent.
He hopes the yard, which his company purchased in October last year after it had lain unusued since 2002, will eventually employ between 1500 and 2000 people.
Scottish first minister Alex Salmond announced the jobs boost in the Scottish Parliament yesterday lunchtime, prior to energy minister Fergus Ewing visiting Nigg.
“Buoyed by growing demand for the manufacture of advanced and highly-specialised technologies across energy sectors, Nigg Energy Park is set to reindustrialise the Cromarty Firth and help strengthen the wider Highland economy,” said Mr Salmond.
He also praised the company for its “magnificent renaissance” at Nigg.
Project engineers, fabricators and welders are being sought on long-term contracts by the Highland-wide recruitment drive launched todayFri.
It will help meet orders related to oil and gas industry and support the upgrade and refurbishment of drilling rigs and comes after a successful year which has seen the company’s sales grow by 46 per cent.
Mr MacGregor was optimistic the vacancies for skilled workers could be filled by people in the north.
“This is only directed at the north and north-east market,” he said.
“This is not for transient workers from other parts of the world. This is actually real jobs to real people with real homes here.”
He described it as a privilege to fulfill his promise of re-establishing Nigg as a large-scale local employer, insisting people can start believing it is the “second coming” of the site which played a vital fabrication role in the development of the North Sea oil industry from the early 1970s, employing 5000 people at its peak.
Mr MacGregor admitted it was unlikely to ever reach that scale again and said its future work would be mutually complimentary with Port of Ardersier’s planned developments to build and ship out offshore wind turbine bases at the redundant McDermott’s oil fabrication yard at Ardersier, where it is hoped 1500 jobs will be created.
He urged anyone with experience at such yards, or with transferable skills from industries like construction, to apply.
“People are here but they need the encouragement to come back,” he said.
“Given the history Highland people have in working at Ardersier and Nigg, we believe these affiliations might inspire them to join our established workforce.”
Mr Ewing, SNP MSP for Inverness and Nairn, described it as a historic day for the region and predicted it would provide a substantial boost to the Highland Capital economy and the wider region.
Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stewart Nicol was delighted skilled workers were being sought.
“The ongoing development of Global Energy Group’s Nigg Energy Park complements other existing energy operations across the region in the oil and gas and renewables sectors,” he commented.
The regeneration of the 238-acre site has already seen £12 million invested in facilities and progress on a range of projects in various sectors of the energy industry, including the manufacture of complex subsea infrastructure for the North Sea and highly-specialised fabrication work supporting a UK nuclear construction project.
The jobs boost was also welcomed by Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP Danny Alexander as confirmation of Nigg’s “tremendous” potential to exploit the growth in renewables.
