New contract for rejuvenated yard

A shipyard which came back from the brink of death is celebrating fresh contract success. McNulty Offshore has clinched another lucrative order to help safeguard some of the 850-strong workforce at its South Shields yard.

About 100 workers were laid off last week as the Maersk Oil owned FPSO ?Global Producer III? contract winds down. But managing director Steve Keyworth said: “That’s normal procedure as a contract reaches the end, but more work is on the way.” We employ 700 blue collar workers and about 150 white collar people. “Some are working offshore, some are involved in three jobs in Norway and we are manning up for other small contracts.”

McNulty has staged an amazing fightback since it was forced into administration early last year following a costly contract row with French firm Technip. Hundreds of men were made redundant and the workforce shrank to just 70 at the yard’s lowest ebb. But the offshore specialists have staged a remarkable commercial turnaround, winning a series of orders over the last year, despite fierce foreign competition.

Keyworth said the latest order, secured from Danish company Maersk, will help safeguard part of the current workforce. He said: “We have won a small offshore module fabrication project from Maersk, which will help us through the immediate future. “While it’s only a small order, we are also bidding for a major offshore contract. If we are successful, that job will see us through 2006 and into 2007. We are expecting some positive news about that order in the very near future.”

The ?Global Producer III?, which is due to leave McNulty Offshore in the next few weeks, provided several months work for the combined workforce from McNulty and A&P Tyne at Hebburn. The company also completed a £50m double barge contract for the Kashaghan Caspian Sea Development, off the Russian mainland. This work was completed by McNulty and sister firm, Aberdeen-based Consafe, on behalf of Italian-led consortium, AGIP KCO.