The boss of Aberdeen harbour has predicted the North Sea energy industry will continue to generate significant traffic at the port for many years to come.
Aberdeen Harbour Board (AHB) chief executive Colin Parker said yesterday that despite declining oil production in the region he expected increasingly larger vessels to berth in the Granite City to service the sector.
His comments came after the harbour board said it enjoyed a record level of shipping activity last week.
AHB is upgrading Torry Quay and plans to widen and dredge the harbour entrance to cope with the added demands of bigger vessels in anticipation of ships becoming longer, wider and deeper. Mr Parker said the first phase of the £30million Torry Quay project should be completed by November, while work on the second phase was due to start early next year.
It is also hoped an £8.5million project to dredge and widen the mouth of the River Dee will also start in 2012.
Mr Parker said the developments meant AHB would be able to meet the future needs of the oil and gas service ships which dock in Aberdeen, plus offshore-windfarm deployment vessels which are expected to use the port as the industry gains momentum. He added: “We are trying to pre-empt the changes in vessel size before we get into a situation where we cannot handle the traffic.”
Mr Parker said the energy industry would need to use Aberdeen harbour even as oil and gas production slowed.
He said: “When exploration and production tails off, there will be the work generated from preparing for and carrying out the decommissioning of these installations.
“As well as that, there is the hope that renewables will bridge the gap that the decline in oil and gas will ultimately create.”
AHB said it handled 590,563 tonnes of shipping last week, the highest to pass through the port in one week. In the first six months of the year 3,746 vessels used the harbour, up 7% on the same period in 2010. This included 2,580 oil and gas service ships, an 8% increase. Shipping tonnage for the six months was up from 11.6million to 12.2million tonnes, while ferry traffic to Shetland and Orkney remained at about 68,000 passengers.