GLOBAL engineering giant Aker Solutions yesterday unveiled a massive Scottish expansion plan that will see it recruit 300 staff at its Aberdeen-based oil services division on the back of increasingly strong outlooks in the UK and Norwegian North Sea, as well as Brazil, West Africa and Asia.

The company, which is headquartered in Oslo, said the move follows a successful start to the year and that it has grown its order backlog 19% since the beginning of January.

At the same time, Aker said its recruitment drive would also add 200 positions at its new engineering office in west London.

Alan Brunnen, the managing director of Aker Solutions in Aberdeen, yesterday told The Herald: “Last year, we decided to take a much more pro-active recruitment approach.

“Since then our strategy has been to man-up ahead of the big waves of work that we know are coming. That offers much greater predictability for our customers and ourselves.”

He declined to provide details of these “big waves of work” but added: “It’s not just the North Sea or the UK.

“About 75% of our work in Aberdeen is exported. There are a number of significant opportunities about to emerge in places like Brazil, West Africa and Asia Pacific, and we have reasons to believe that a fair amount of that will come our way.

“We’re just trying to get ahead of the game by recruiting more people and training them up in preparation for the work to come.

“We regard Aberdeen as a central hub, a centre of excellence for our global subsea business.”

Mr Brunnen also said the company was currently in the process of acquiring a manufacturing operation in Aberdeen from fellow oilfield services giant Baker Hughes, where it will invest

£20 million in manufacturing technology for subsea control systems.

Nonetheless, Aker’s announcement is also a second recent major vote of confidence in the North Sea – despite the potential deterrent of the Budget’s tax hike.

Last week, the head of BP’s North Sea business said the oil and gas giant expects to approve three more huge projects off Scotland this year.

Trevor Garlick said BP plans to proceed with projects involving an outlay of billions of dollars within months, subject to winning Government approval.

The plans represent a huge vote of confidence in the mature province by BP, which also expects to recruit hundreds of skilled staff to keep pace with increased activity in the North Sea.

Yesterday’s announcement by Aker, which is already one of Scotland’s largest employers with a workforce of more than 2500 people, marks another vote of confidence.

It also makes clear that the company believes that there is still plenty of money to be made in the North Sea, and allays the concerns of those who fear the region is done for.

Some industry experts believe there are still billions of barrels of oil to be recovered.

Advances in subsea technology – one of Aker’s main area’s of expertise – combined with the increase in oil prices in the past two years, have altered the economics of many North Sea fields.

Mr Brunnen confirmed that BP was one of its North Sea customers.

The majority of Aker’s new jobs in Aberdeen will be part of its subsea technology business, where some 200 new posts are planned. Most of the remainder of new Scottish jobs will support work in maintaining and upgrading North Sea platforms to extend the lives of exploration fields.

Aker’s well-service business, which provides technologies and services aimed at increasing oil recovery from producing wells, also requires a number of technical and ancillary personnel, the company said.

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