A multi-million-pound investment by a decommissioning firm will bring additional jobs to Dundee.
Well-Safe Solutions has agreed to acquire the Ocean Guardian drilling unit – which has drilled hundreds of wells since entering service in 1985 – from Diamond Offshore.
The firm, which took a large site at the Port of Dundee 18 months ago, will invest around $100 million to give the unit plug and abandonment (P&A) capabilities.
The investment will bring around 90 jobs over the course of the next year, adding to the firm’s current 40 employees.
Chief executive Phil Milton said a proportion of new employees will be based in Dundee.
“We are delighted to have reached this agreement with Diamond Offshore for the acquisition of our first asset, which will allow us to deliver the complete P&A solution,” he said.
“This acquisition will allow us to ramp up activity in Dundee over the next six months.
“Of the 90 new jobs, we’re expecting that around 10 to 15 of those will be based at our Dundee facility.
“We have had a number of in-depth conversations with potential clients and believe the purchase of this asset will allow us to advance these towards firm commitments.”
The work will include installing a dive system and the capability to deploy a subsea intervention lubricator, supported by the Oil and Gas Technology Centre (OGTC).
This is the first time a privately owned, Scottish business will own and operate this type of unit.
Well-Safe is already in talks to add a second semi-submersible to their business. This will be followed by purchases of a jack-up, monohull vessel and land-based P&A units.
Well-Safe launched in August 2017 with the vision to become a tier one wells decommissioning company.
Andy Samuel, chief executive of the Oil and Gas Authority added: “The OGA very much welcomes new investments and innovative business models such as this, as a key part of achieving industry’s 35% decommissioning cost reduction target.”