A Scottish fabrication business is to recruit 100 people after winning another lucrative contract for a major North Sea gas project.
Burntisland Fabrications (BiFab) said yesterday it would take on workers at its Arnish, Methil and Burntisland yards to build the accommodation unit for GDF Suez’s £1.4billion Cygnus development.
Around 20 of those jobs are expected to be created at the firm’s Arnish site in Lewis, matching the number BiFab said it would take on at the yard following its first Cygnus contract win.
Last year, the firm landed a £47million deal with GDF to build four jackets for the development.
First steel has already been cut for the jackets, with 100 people working on the project.
BiFab managing director John Robertson said: “The jacket contract has started and is going extremely well for us, so to win the topside contract on top of that is fantastic news for all of our workforce and the team which has worked hard on this project.”
Jean-Marie Dauger, executive vice-president of global gas and LNG for GDF Suez, said he was pleased the deal had gone to a UK yard, adding that 80% of the Cygnus contracts awarded so far had gone to domestic firms.
He said that, as well as job creation in the supply chain, Cygnus would also lead to more roles for GDF in the north-east.
The operator plans to create 50 posts in the Granite City to work on the huge development. Mr Dauger said: “It has already had a positive effect in Aberdeen and we are starting to build a really strong team here.
“At the moment we have 300 people employed by GDF Suez Exploration and Production, with half in London and half in Aberdeen, and there is certainly more to come.”
Energy Secretary Ed Davey was in Aberdeen to see the latest deal finalised yesterday and said the UK Government was determined more UK companies would benefit from energy investment.
He said: “Whether it is oil and gas in the North Sea or low-carbon renewables, I am determined that UK companies are among the contractors so we benefit from the investment in the energy infrastructure itself, but we also benefit from the supply chain.”
Cygnus – the largest gas find in the southern North Sea for 25 years – is 93 miles offshore and holds some 635billion cubic feet of proved and probable reserves, with first gas expected at the end of 2015.