Dundee is “extremely well-placed” to win major business from the multi-billion-pound North Sea oil and gas decommissioning market, it has been claimed.
Hopeful firms reckon the city enjoys a location ideally suited to an industry which is expected to generate work worth as much as £40 billion in the next 25 years, while interested parties on the Angus and Fife coast could also be set to tackle the potentially lucrative sector.
The predictions come as the industry prepares to gather in St Andrews early next month for the annual Offshore Decommissioning Conference.
The event jointly organised by industry bodies Decom North Sea and Oil & Gas UK, and described as the “best gathering on the UK of active decommissioning people” is almost a sell-out, with more than 300 delegates expected to discuss collaboration, cost-cutting and innovation.
Sandra Robertson, of long-established and Inverkeithing-based family firm Robertson Metals Recycling, said Dundee was “logistically perfect” for the work.
Her company, which already exports 250,000 tonnes of recyclable steel to mills in Europe each year, made a significant investment in the city to establish Dundee Decommissioning and its specialist recycling facility in 2012.
“Dundee is really extremely well-placed to deal with this material that’s coming in off the North Sea,” Ms Robertson said.
“It already serves the North Sea from a manufacturing and engineering perspective and, at its heart, decommissioning is just reverse engineering.
“It makes complete sense to do the reverse and to bring the decommissioning to Dundee.”
She said the rewards could prove “enormous”, highlighted how establishing a base in the sheltered Port of Dundee could save operators huge amounts of money given eye-watering shipping costs, and hailed the contribution and assistance of Port of Dundee operator Forth Ports.
While the firm could handle projects as small as a single length of pipe, Dundee Decom is already in talks over a deal which could result in it processing two vessels full of decommissioned oil and gas hardware a week for up to two years.
The company is also seeking to increase the number of tender lists on which it appears.
Meanwhile, Forth Ports which also runs a string of quayside locations in Fife said it is now positioning the port to work in the market alongside the firm.
Divisional director Stuart Wallace said the location offers “excellent marine facilities within close proximity to many of the North Sea oil and gas fields” and deep-water berths.
“The port has been significantly redeveloped over the past four years, resulting in a growth in North Sea oil and gas business, and has worked with Dundee Decommissioning to create a purpose-built state-of-the-art facility ready for dealing with the reclamation and recovery of assets from the North Sea as they decommissioned,” he said.
He stressed that the city had already shown its capabilities.
“The City of Dundee and the port have shown a unique ability to deliver both the infrastructure and the resources to meet the needs of the North Sea market, bringing significant overall economic activity to the city.
“As part of the Forth Ports group, the Port of Dundee, along with the group’s other facilities on the River Forth, is actively working with the relevant organisations to provide facilities to meet this rapidly developing market.”
Fife Council also said it was considering opportunities in the decommissioning field.