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Ardersier lands £300m in offshore wind boost

Ardersier lands £300m in offshore wind boost

 

Houston-based private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners is investing £300m in the long-dormant fabrication yard at Ardersier.

The investment team has appointed former BP executive Lewis Gillies as CEO of the 450-acre port’s new parent company, Haventus.

Dredging work is already under way for the creation of a quay to facilitate the decommissioning of North Sea oil rigs at the McDermott yard that built the structures in the 1970s and 1980s and which will now decommission them.

Clearing the North Sea of redundant oil and gas platforms will involve over 1.3 million tonnes of infrastructure being brought onshore over the next decade, according to Offshore Energies UK’s Decommissioning Insight report 2022.

Quantum partner Michael MacDougall, said: “The site’s scale and geographical location means it is ideally positioned to become a leading European hub for offshore renewable energy.”

Highlander Mr Gillies spent 20 years at BP, latterly as CEO of the former BP/Rio Tinto joint venture Hydrogen Energy International, including work on the original Peterhead UK CCS project which was later cancelled in 2015.

He added: “Ardersier will be a vital facility for the deployment of offshore wind and the scale of the site will also allow decommissioning of ageing oil and gas assets.”

Drew Hendry, MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey, said: “Ardersier Port is a key site that has lain dormant for too long, so it is great news to see this commitment and such a significant investment being made, especially as it is another big contribution towards the just transition to renewables from the Highlands.

“The plans cannot be underestimated in terms of the potential for jobs and strengthening the local economy; it also further underlines the attractiveness of the Highlands as the place for the future of energy.”

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE

Published: 24-04-2023

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