South Fife boosted by $23.5 million investment by Oceaneering Umbilical Solutions

One of Fife’s largest employers has announced plans for a significant multi-million dollar investment in its material handling and storage operations, bringing with it a raft of new jobs to be phased in over the next few years.

Port of Rosyth-based Oceaneering Umbilical Solutions, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of umbilical cabling infrastructure for the global oil and gas industry, has confirmed a $23.5 million investment is to be made to increase the on-site capacity of its materials handling and storage facilities.

This gives Oceaneering Umbilical Solutions the ability to manufacture and assemble larger umbilicals, in response to the offshore industry’s quest for deeper water drilling and a reliance on the host of services required to carry out operational procedures.

As Michael E Smith, general manager at Rosyth explains, with these new facilities in place, Oceaneering has the opportunity to grow its 320-strong workforce.

“This $23.5 million investment is being phased in over a 12 month period and represents a significant expenditure for our facilities here at Rosyth with the ‘knock-on’ effect of potential for increasing our current staffing levels over the longer term, adding to the 60 new employees we have taken on in the past year.”

The new materials handling and storage investment will help further modernise and streamline our existing plant and equipment to give Oceaneering Umbilical Solutions one of the most advanced plants of its type in the subsea industry.”

Lena Wilson, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise said: "Oceaneering is an exciting ambitious company that is going from strength to strength in Scotland's growing energy engineering sector. The company's decision to further invest and expand in Scotland is testament to our world renowned oil and gas industry and reputation as a globally competitive location with a strong skilled labour force.

"The company has a 'can-do' attitude to business growth so we are pleased to have been able to support this latest expansion and look forward to continuing to work with the company as it further develops its presence in Scotland's energy engineering sector."