WASHINGTON: Motive Offshore Group has expanded its business with a six figure investment in a quayside fabrication facility in Dundee Port. After successfully negotiating with the port to take over the site, which boasts a deepwater quay side facility, alongside a 12,000sq ft workshop and 2000sq ft office block, Motive Offshore launched Motive Fabrication. The base allows Motive Fabrication to reinstate the fabrication service at the Port for subsea contractors and vessel owners.
The move by Motive Offshore coincides with the firm securing a US$1.8 million (£1.5 million) contract to manufacture and mobilize a 5000-tonne carousel loading tower complete with tensioner and other deck equipment for Swan Hunter UK. The equipment for Swan Hunter will be operated by Motive Offshores’ technicians, offshore Ghana in Q2 and loaded out from Dundee Port. Motive Offshore Group is headquartered in Boyndie, Banff, Aberdeenshire, and has a total of 60 employees across its divisions, which include marine equipment manufacture and rental, spooling and inspection, and fabrication. Motive Fabrication in Dundee currently employs ten staff and is looking to increase the headcount to support upcoming projects.
Gary Mitchelson, who previously ran Riverside Engineering in Dundee before selling his business to Rigmar in 2012, has joined Motive Fabrication as operations director and will manage the business at the Dundee base. “We are continuing to invest and diversify into new areas and securing the facility in Dundee with the launch of Motive Fabrication is a positive move for us,” said James Gregg of Motive Offshore Group. “We are in the process of delivering a large-scale manufacturing project out of the Dundee base and we are working on a number of other contracts. We already manufacture heavy equipment at our base in Aberdeenshire but the addition of a quayside facility in Dundee will significantly add to our capacity.”
The Port of Dundee is continuing to attract a number of North Sea oil and gas businesses looking for more cost-effective options for inspection, repair and maintenance of vessels and jackup and semisubmersible drilling rigs. The Port of Dundee’s owners, Forth Ports Ltd., has invested $12.1 million (£10 million) to extend the quay, develop a new 25-acre yard, as well as a landing pad for a permanently installed 1500-tonne crane to support decommissioning projects all within 300m of Motives new facility. Construction is well underway and expected to be completed by yearend 2017.
