Expansion for pipe coater with new factory

AROUND 70 jobs are set to be created with the launch of a £2m pipe coating factory in Hartlepool.

The UK arm of global business Wasco Energy is constructing a new plant on land owned by PD Ports where it will initially have an open-air facility capable of wrapping 12m lengths of pipeline in concrete before they are shipped to oil and gas fields. The firm already has a factory within Tata Steel’s Brenda Road facility, where it employs 65 people, but says the expansion will create an initial 73 jobs, with promise of the same again in the future.

Construction is due to finish in March before the company goes into a testing phase and then production from April. Wasco will process around 100 pipes per day at the site before they’re shipped from the port to offshore projects.

The plant, which will later receive a roof covering, is similar to another facility of Wasco’s in Greece. But the cooler North East climate is said to be better for managing the setting of concrete.

Stuart Stafford, general manager at Wasco Pipe Coatings UK, said Norwegian energy giant Equinor was one of many bigname energy companies the Hartlepool operation is capable of supplying. He said: “Equinor have already told us they have about 30 projects in the pipeline for concrete wrapping with a lot of that work currently happening in Europe. We’ll be taking it back and giving an added boost for the economy for this local area and the UK as a whole.”

Wasco, which bought Hartlepool based BSR several years ago, specialises in protective coatings for oil and gas pipelines. The firm says it is the only company in the UK capable of providing this type of work.