The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Offshore giant in talks over old yard
Industry: ‘It’s about being in the right place at right time’
THE offshore giant at the centre of a rig grounding drama could be poised to breathe fresh life into a deserted fabrication yard.
It is understood US firm Transocean is involved in behind-the-scenes talks about the future of the Kishorn facility on the Wester Ross coast.
It employed about 3,000 people in its 1970s heyday.
And hopes were rising last night it could be resurrected in the wake of the Transocean Winner incident in the
Western Isles. The semisubmersible ran aground at Dalmore on Lewis on August 8 after a towline snapped in a severe storm.
It was en route from Norway to Turkey to be scrapped.
It was successfully refloated at high tide in Dalmore Bay, near Carloway, after being stuck on the rocks for a fortnight.
Two tug boats then took the 17,000- tonne structure to Broad Bay, on the east side of the island, to allow experts to assess what damage it had suffered.
Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP Ian Blackford now believes the incident could lead to a major jobs spin-off for the islands.
The SNP politician is convinced remote Kishorn could be revived as a decommissioning centre.
He said last night: “If we can pull this off it will open the door, hopefully, for other contracts as well.
“What’s unique about Kishorn is the depth of the water. The dry dock is 150 metres (almost 500ft) across, which is capable of taking the largest rigs.
“It’s about being in the right place at the right time and hopefully demonstrating to Transocean that this is something that they should take seriously.”
The Kishorn dry dock, complete with three quays, remains in place.
Mr Blackford said: “It also has the advantage of full planning permission for oil and gas related projects such as rig repair, decommissioning and recycling.
“This work will be worth billions of pounds over the coming decades.
“The port operators are enthusiastic about working with the industry to offer their facilities as a destination for rig repair, decommissioning and recycling.
“The recent grounding of the Transocean Winner brought public attention to the pitfalls of shipping similar vessels from the North Sea to destinations as far away as Turkey for decommissioning.
“Surely it makes economic and environmental sense for Kishorn to carry out this work.”
Alasdair Ferguson, director of Kishorn Port Ltd, has described the facility as an ideally placed “sleeping giant”.
No one from Transocean could be contacted for comment yesterday.
“If we can pull this off it will open the door for other contracts”
In its heyday it was a hive of activity and provided employment for hundreds of people in a part of the north where the economy is more fragile than most.
And now, thanks to what at the time appeared to be a potential catastrophe for the Hebrides, the mothballed fabrication yard at Kishorn on the west coast could be given a whole new lease of life.
With the Transocean Winner – which ran aground on Lewis as it was being towed during a storm – now safely off the rocks, thoughts are turning to the potential for utilising existing facilities in the north as centres for decommissioning rigs and installations which have reached the end of their working lives.
Yards which have lain largely dormant for decades could now play a key role in the dismantling of the very structures which have been at the forefront of powering the north and northeast economy for so long.
Kishorn has already been described as a “sleeping giant” – a bit like a football team whose glory years seem a distant memory but which just needs some astute investment, a bit of vision and a lucky break or two to bounce back in style.
It must be galling for those at the helm of the port at the moment to see its potential for salvation literally sailing past en route to a destination in Europe, when the facilities exist to secure the Highlands at least a share of the multibillion-pound decommissioning sector.
Time to wake the sleeping giant and bring back the glory days.
“It just needs some astute investment, a bit of vision and a lucky break or two to bounce back in style”