New life for disused yard
Halcrow and Mackay Consultants have begun work on the preparation of a Development Master Plan for the former Nigg oil rig Fabrication Yard and surrounding areas totalling approximately 1,160 acres in the Inner Moray Firth. The task, under the direction of The Highland Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) is scheduled for completion in July 2008.
The yard at its height employed more than 5,300 people, creating and maintaining the giant structures vital to the North Sea oil and gas trade, but has been left virtually redundant for almost 10 years. The Master Plan will examine options to bring the strategic North Sea site into use.
The Development Master Plan is intended to inform and provide the rationale that underpins the requirement to pursue the proposed Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) procedure which is currently under consideration by The Highland Council. The CPO is being considered by The Highland Council to unlock the site for development which is believed to have been constrained by complex landownership matters.
The Council’s Planning, Environment and Development Committee Chairman, Councillor Drew Hendry, said: “This is a key milestone and is a crucially important step in revitalising the Nigg yard. As this is a nationally important site, its future success will bring enormous benefits not only locally, but to the Highland economy and that of Scotland as a whole.”
HIE operations manager Archie McCreevy envisages a mixed use site with a number of employers including marine, oil and renewable energy work. The Development Master Plan will examine the potential for heavy fabrication, oil rig decommissioning, renewable energy engineering, maritime engineering, port use, trans-shipment, processing, and storage both in terms of their physical requirements as well as market influences.
Stefano Smith, Associate Director of Halcrow, said that “This Development Master Plan will build on the ‘review of Ports and Sites in the Inner Moray Firth’ by Halcrow and subsequently approved as supplementary planning guidance to the development plan by The Highland Council. The draft National Planning Framework recognises the strategic significance of the site at Nigg and acknowledges that the fabrication yard has potential as a facility for decommissioning oil and gas installations and for the manufacture and support services required by the renewable energy industry. Its deep water is an asset of strategic importance. This Development Master Plan will lend greater weight to fulfilling this opportunity given its strategic significance and the particular challenges that need to be overcome.”