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North Sea will be more than the icing on Dundee’s cake

[ February 17, 2016   //   ]

Forth Ports is poised to make the largest ever investment in Dundee harbour. It has unveiled plans to spend £10 million to create a new quayside with industry-leading “heavy lift” capability, coupled with an onshore operational area and position Dundee as a major centre for the North Sea oil and gas decommissioning and offshore wind sectors.

The quayside at the east end of the port will be developed and connected to the existing Prince Charles Wharf. It will offer heavy lift capability over its entire 200m length with an ultra-heavy lift pad at one end – one of the strongest quaysides in Scotland, capable of taking up to 80 tonnes per square metre. Coupled with a deep-water berth and significant land area of around 60 acres, the port will be able to handle the largest cargoes in the North Sea.

Forth Ports chief executive, Charles Hammond, said: “This is an important, privately funded investment for the Port of Dundee which is ideally placed to service the needs of North Sea oil and gas, decommissioning and Scotland’s offshore wind sector over the coming years. The port’s existing skills base and location, combined with its riverside berths, deep water and rock river bed, put the port in a key position to become a hub for these sectors for construction, operations and maintenance and for decommissioning.

Dundee would also be in a position to benefit from offshore renewable projects such as the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind farm proposed for the Outer Forth Estuary, he added.

Construction of the scheme will take 18 months to complete and the work will start immediately. Upon completion, the quayside will be 200 metres longer than currently and will be

The strengthened quayside will be equipped to handle marine projects such as offshore anchor and chain servicing, which require a strong quayside, and offshore wind turbine assembly and deployment activities, as well as operations and maintenance, for which the Port of Dundee is ideally placed due to its proximity to the proposed offshore wind farm developments in the Forth and Tay Estuaries. It is anticipated that the quayside would also enable Dundee to benefit from future North Sea oil & gas decommissioning projects.

Business at the Port of Dundee has grown in the past 12 months, with the port attracting a new general cargo tenant, as well handling and drying a record 60,000 tonnes of barley during the 2015 harvest.

((Pix – Dundee))

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