MSP Jenny Marra has repeatedly called for Dundee to become the centre for decommissioning of the North Sea.

Not only is Ms Marra now a little late as major decommissioning projects have already been planned in other areas of Scotland, but she failed to highlight the fact that decommissioning works require deep water and major infrastructure.

Dundee has neither of these advantages and add into it the harsh environment it leaves a rather undesirable location.

Dutch, Norwegian and Italian companies have already built or are building specialist dual-hull heavy-lift vessels to remove all the old structures in the North Sea.

They will require deep water (fjords) and dockside facilities to park and deconstruct the units moved from their offshore sites.

Norway has the only sites already in operation. The two sites in the UK were allowed to close and are no longer viable.

There will be a little spin-off for the United Kingdom in removing some of the topsides before the big lifts but this will be mostly offshore labour (badly needed at present) and will mostly be serviced from the existing infrastructure in Aberdeen.

Source: The Courier