Engineering news
The Scottish government has launched a new £5 million fund to enable the country’s oil and gas sector make the most of decommissioning opportunities at home and abroad.
The Decommissioning Challenge Fund (DCF) will support infrastructure upgrades and innovation in salvage and transport methods at Scotland’s ports and harbours. It will also encourage engineering scoping work at key sites to build business cases that will attract further private investment.
The news comes as Shell plans to apply to begin decommissioning its Brent oil field.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon launched the Fund at Sparrows, an Aberdeen-based company with expertise in decommissioning that has just secured a major contract to provide 102 cranes to Scottish Power.
Sturgeon said: “With up to 20 billion barrels of oil and gas remaining, the Scottish government’s top priority remains working with industry and stakeholders to maximise economic recovery from the North Sea.
“The new £5 million Fund also recognises that decommissioning is an emerging, but growing, activity in the North Sea, with £17.6 billion expected to be spent in the North Sea over the next decade.
“Scottish-based firms are already seizing opportunities, securing the lion’s share of value from a range of decommissioning activities, including project management of decommissioning programmes and high value well plugging and abandonment activity."
Welcoming the fund, managing director of growth companies, innovation and infrastructure at Scottish Enterprise, Adrian Gillespie, said: “While the focus should remain on maximising recovery, Scotland has the ambition and potential to position itself at the forefront of the global decommissioning industry, using our decades of oil and gas expertise. We’re already seeing Scottish companies winning business in this market and the new challenge fund will help to unlock even more opportunities for Scotland’s supply chain.”