A Fife heavy engineering yard says it expects fabrication work on a £1.4 billion North Sea gas installation to create up to 200 jobs.
The ceremonial first steel was cut for the Cygnus gas field the largest single discovery in the Southern North Sea at BiFab’s Methil facility on Thursday.
The company was last year awarded a £47 million contract by GDF SUEZ E&P UK to build the subsea jackets for all four Cygnus platforms.
The first three jackets are due to be delivered to the field which lies 93 miles off the coast of Lincolnshire in April next year, while the fourth is scheduled for handover a year later.
The BiFab contract covers the design, procurement and construction of the four jackets and associated piles. The combined structures weigh a total of approximately 8,000 tonnes.
The firm is also in the running to fabricate an accommodation block one of the four topside modules that will be built for the project although negotiations over that element have yet to be completed.
BiFab managing director John Robertson said the Cygnus project could ultimately support 200 new jobs at his company and take the overall workforce from around 700 to 900.
He also said being involved in such a high-profile project was good from a reputational standpoint as BiFab look to develop new opportunities both in the oil and gas sector and in renewables.
“It is a great day for us as it is an achievement even to get to this stage and we are now going to start full production from Methil,” Mr Robertson said.
“The contract is of considerable value and we are still in discussion over some other parts of the overall field development. For us, it means that we have work at the yard through to 2015 which is tremendous and it gives us a challenge.”
The Cygnus Partnership is led by operator GDF SUEZ E&P UK Ltd, which holds a 38.75% stake in the project, alongside development partners Centrica (48.75%) and Bayerngas (12.5%).
First production is expected in 2015 and the field has gross proven and probable reserves of 18 billion cubic metres of gas.
It will eventually contribute around 5% of the UK’s total gas demand enough for around 1.5 million homes.
The celebrations brought representatives of each of the project partners together at Methil yesterday, along with local politicians Lindsay Roy and David Torrance.
Jean-Claude Perdigues, managing director of GDF SUEZ E&P UK, said the roots of the Cygnus development dated back to a small gas discovery in 2002 which was later found to be much more significant than first thought.
Mr Perdigues said BiFab had won the fabricating contract after putting forward a bid that was both competitive cost-wise and technically competent but which came with the added assurance of a proven background of delivering on major jobs.