The irony is not lost on me that a rusting hulk may represent a bright new future for Dundee.
Oil and gas exploration and recovery has been ongoing in the North Sea for more than 50 years now but, in large part, Dundee and the surrounding region missed out on the substantial wealth the industry generated.
Yes, there are many offshore workers who live in Dundee and spend their wages in the city.
However, that is very much a secondary prize to the type of massive inward investment that Aberdeen enjoyed at the height of the oil boom.
But this is not about sour grapes.
This is about accepting where Dundee is at, learning lessons from the mistakes of the past in not grasping opportunities when they present themselves and building for the future.
The North Sea is now a mature energy basin whose natural resources, while a long way from being exhausted, are dwindling at a rapid rate.
Now that may not sound the most promising of starts for a new business pitch.
But think about it.
After half a century of oil extraction, the UK Continental Shelf is peppered with ageing and mothballed infrastructure that will have to be removed at some point.
That process has already begun and I admit to being more than a little sickened a couple of years back when the 24,200 tonne Shell Brent Delta platform was scooped up from its subsea foundations and whisked right past our door to be decommissioned at Able’s Seaton Port yard.
The Delta contract alone ran into tens of millions of pounds and at least a portion of that work could have been carried out at Dundee docks.
But there is good news.
In contrast to the city’s lethargy and dismissive attitude to the oil boom, Dundee identified the decom opportunity early and has been incredibly active in its efforts to attract the major energy players to the city.
Nothing happens quickly in oil, so I was delighted when Shell’s giant floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Curlew made its way up the Tay for cleaning.
It is a great, ugly old thing but its very presence in the city is a signal, as Bob would say, that times they are a changin’.
Curlew will eventually sail away to Turkey to be broken up.
Its sail-away will irk me, as the physical decommissioning work could also be done at Dundee.
But the fact it is here at all is a significant step in the right direction and one this city must build upon.
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