A £200 million investment by Japanese giant Sumitomo Electric Industries will deliver around 500 new for Global Energy’s Nigg
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A £200 MILLION investment by Japanese manufacturing giant Sumitomo Electric Industries will deliver around 500 new jobs for Global Energy’s Nigg yard in the first major contract announcement for the Highland green freeport.
The plans for a facility to manufacture subsea power cables was confirmed during a visit by Scottish secretary Alister Jack to Nigg last week where he hailed the project as delivering “a lot of high quality, high wage jobs”.
Citing the increasing demand for such cables, Sumitomo will build the largest manufacturing plant on the Cromarty Firth for the trans-national cables carrying green energy to customers.
It is the third major announcement this year following the confirmation of the Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and the £300 million investment in a decommissioning site at Ardersier Port by Quantum Energy Partners.
Mr Jack emphasised that as the anchor contract others were expected to follow in short order as was seen with other freeports around the UK, which will multiply the benefits for the surrounding area.
“The Sumitomo investment is £200 million initially, it could go higher, it is 150 green jobs but it is 350 additional jobs laying in behind it with other contracts with support companies,” he said.
“So for this area it is a lot of high-quality, high-wage jobs coming here and it is the anchor contract so others will follow on and we saw that with Teesport, once you get an anchor contract it brings other businesses that want to be attached too.
“This yard [Nigg] was historically about the Forties Oil Field and that is what happens in the oil and gas industry in the 1970s and it is now transitioning to be about renewables and these subsea cables are very hi-tech, they are very important and they will be part of our push to net zero.”
He added: “It is about growing and there are always advantages, and the advantages spread out and we have seen that in England with the freeports which were going 18 months earlier.
“The benefits have been wider than just the radius of the freeport areas, the benefits have pushed out further – it is about bringing investment, creating high-quality jobs, and most importantly high-paying jobs.
“And allowing people in areas like the Cromarty Firth, young people, to stay here if they want to because they can find a career here and that is very much part of the levelling up agenda.”
Iain Sinclair, Global’s executive director of renewables and energy transition said the development would be “transformational” and that “I can’t over emphasise the importance” of having an anchor project.
He said: “Actually seeing the announcement take place, not just in the Cromarty Firth, it is exciting but it is starting to translate on the ground.
“We have been working on projects and inward investment opportunities, four of them, for over two years now and certainly since the announcement of the Green Freeport we are starting to see some of these discussions crystalise now and become more meaningful.
“So it is hugely exciting but we are still not there, there are still challenges ahead of us as we get toward completion but without a shadow of a doubt it feels like things are accelerating and we are all very excited.
“Without a shadow of a doubt this is a strategically important development for North Sea renewables, having jobs is one thing but having high value jobs is going to lead to more money spent in the wider economy.
“The anchor projects are key, we have got to get them started so I think we are just about there so to get it over the line is going to be transformational, having an anchor project I can’t over emphasise the importance of having that.”
