Oil Firm Plans to Create 130 New Jobs at Testing Facility

07 March 2012

First Minister Alex Salmond has hailed the success of the bouyant oil sector as he opened a new testing facility in Aberdeenshire.


Alex Salmond, left, visits Proserv to open new testing facility

Proserv's Birchmoss workshop is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK, specialising in the maintenance and installation of subsea equipment.

The firm will create 130 new jobs and plans to invest £900,000 over the coming months.

At a ceremony at the Echt site on Tuesday, Mr Salmond presented awards to apprentices who have completed the company's customised subsea technician training.

He said: "As the workforce expands then many, many young people are coming into the company getting trained particularly in subsea skills, and will be going to make their careers in the waters round Scotland, and indeed the oil provinces around the world.

"It's a great Scottish-based company expanding into the international marketplace. It's going to be here for decades to come."

David Lamont, of Proserv, said: "It doubles our capacity here, but also adds a lot of the capability we don't currently have within the organisation.

"In fact it's very rare in the UK or the world. In terms of the scale of what we can do, both for the subsea production sector, but also for the subsea drilling and many other areas of great interest. Really doing very well in the oil and gas arena just now."

Subsea UK chief executive Neil Gordon said: "This is a significant new facility which, through combining the realm of testing, developing and maintenance under one roof, has the real potential to reaffirm the UK’s world-leading position in the subsea industry. I also hope that it helps inspire a new generation of young people to join one of the most dynamic, technology-driven industries in the world.”