New oil field deal 'secures jobs'

Jan 14 2013

A £30 million contract to build structures for oil fields west of Shetland will secure around 100 jobs, bosses have said.

Work for the BP contract to fabricate 74 subsea structures for Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields will be done at Babcock's plant in Rosyth, Fife.

As part of the project, known as Quad 204, another £6.3 million in sub-contractor investment will be available.

Nearly 400 million barrels of oil have been produced at the fields since production started in 1998 and the work will help extend production to at least 2035, BP said.

Rosyth dockyard is also assembling the Royal Navy's largest-ever warship, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Mike Pettigrew, managing director of future business for Babcock, said: "Today's announcement is great news for our Rosyth facility and demonstrates our capability to operate within the offshore energy sector.

"While our commitment and focus on the delivery of the Queen Elizabeth-class programme remains unchanged, this project presents us with excellent opportunities to enhance the utilisation of our facilities and resources here on the Forth.

"This is a multi-faceted technical programme which will sustain over 100 positions and provide training and development opportunities here at Rosyth. In addition, we will continue to involve our apprentices in exciting and specialised areas of our operations, strengthening the skills base of our next generation of engineers."

Andrew Train, BP Quad 204 offshore programme director, said: "The Quad 204 project is a major investment in the North Sea for BP and its partners, and this is a key contract for the delivery of the subsea production system.

"We are looking forward to working collaboratively with Babcock and safely delivering high quality and reliable subsea structures which will help to extend the field life of the Schiehallion and Loyal fields."