More than 60 new jobs are to be created in the North-east of England by Technip Offshore Wind Ltd after the company announced today that it intends to set up a new projects and engineering centre in Newcastle, located at the heart of the region’s emerging renewables hub.
The move bolsters Technip’s rapidly-evolving renewable energy operations, including its existing Aberdeen-based engineering and projects capability, and further strengthens the company’s position for significant market growth and to capitalise on emerging business opportunities.
Ron Cookson, senior vice president at Technip Offshore Wind, said: “The new offices underpin Technip’s commitment to the renewables industry. As part of our strategy for growth and to continue to meet increasing demand for our services, we want to build a capability in Newcastle to work hand in hand with our existing centre of excellence for project management and engineering in Aberdeen.
“By complementing each other, the centres enhance Technip’s market-leading position by enabling us to deliver to UK and Europe-wide projects through locally-based offices It will further heighten our responsiveness to customer needs by being located close to where they want us to be. This includes the East Coast of England where a number of our customers are expected to establish a presence to serve the major North Sea Round 3 zones.
“Newcastle is a prime location because it has an established and vibrant renewables sector, particularly in offshore wind, with a strong focus on technology development and manufacture – companies such as Narec, The Engineering Business and SMD are based here. It also has a strong skills market, including engineers and project managers, while its first-class infrastructure provides a gateway to other resources, such as Technip’s cabling operations at Sunderland, with good transport links within the UK and to Europe.”
Technip expects to create further employment opportunities in offshore wind in the Newcastle area by 2014.
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Offshore WIND staff, April 13, 2012