Dundee is set to benefit from an “Aberdeen dividend” as oil and gas work spills out from the Granite City.
Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce president Tim Allan told business leaders at the city’s economic summit yesterday there was a huge opportunity for the region to tap-in to the burgeoning North Sea sector.
Specifically, Mr Allan said Dundee and Angus had a major role to play in providing workers for an industry which is suffering from a widening skills gap.
“What is not going to happen is any kind of concept of competing with Aberdeen. That would be entirely counter-productive,” Mr Allan said.
“What is going to drive any kind of Aberdeen dividend for this city is Aberdeen recognising there is value to be had from the quality of people we produce.
“They have an issue there with wage inflation, but the real issue is the skills shortage.”
Mr Allan said that close cooperation between legislators in Dundee and Angus and in Aberdeen could help identify opportunities and devise a strategy to “somehow share” the wealth derived from the North Sea.
“We have to demonstrate that we have the skills here, the appropriate training and appropriate facilities, to attract international businesses down here from Aberdeen because it makes sense for them.
“The Aberdeen dividend is a crucial opportunity for us. The renewables energy boom hasn’t perhaps manifested itself in the way expected it is a question of time, I believe but in the interim we have to make progress.”
In recent weeks Dundee and Angus have seen an upturn in oil and gas related work, with Certex a lifting gear and steel rope supplier for the offshore sector expanding its presence in Montrose, and Houston-based National Oilwell Varco moving into new premises at Dundee’s West Pitkerro Industrial Estate after outgrowing its long-term base in Angus.
Dundee-based MSP Jenny Marra queried whether any formal scoping exercise had been carried out into the scale of the oil and gas dividend opportunity.
She said that from anecdotal conversations she’d had, it appeared that firms operating in the sector were happy to spend the cash required to establish and maintain a base in Aberdeen.
Director of city development Mike Galloway said Dundee City Council was working in partnership with the City of Aberdeen to help it through the current “overheating” situation that had developed as investment in the North Sea grew.
Mr Galloway told delegates he expected oil and gas would “feature quite heavily” in Dundee’s economy in future as a result.
He said oil and gas firms tended to bunch together on industrial estates in and around Aberdeen, but there were opportunities for developing that sector elsewhere.
However, on an immediate basis he said Dundee was well placed to assist with the skills shortage in the industry.
“Over the last year we have had several sessions up in Aberdeen where we have given presentations to the business community there,” Mr Galloway said.
“There is a lot of cash wallowing around up there (amongst oil and gas firms) but very often they like to stay together in a locational sense. But what they are really suffering from is a skills shortage, and Dundee can definitely benefit from that.”