MORE than 100 jobs should be created in the Highlands following the award of a #30m North Sea order by Shell.
The Rockwater facility, near John O' Groats, in Caithness, has won the contract to supply three under-sea pipeline systems, called flowline bundles, for Shell's latest development in its Gannet field.
Mark Duncan, commercial manager with sub-sea engineering specialist Rockwater, whose yard is at Wester, nine miles from John O'Groats, said: ``This contract demonstrates the importance of bundle technology in development of marginal offshore fields. It is a financially and technically attractive option particularly in fields with complex reservoirs.
``These new jobs are good news for Rockwater and Caithness, and this latest success highlights our commitment to the North of Scotland site and bundle technology as a whole.''
The Gannet field is in the central North Sea, 122 miles east of Dundee. The satellite Gannet E and F reservoirs, which will benefit from the new pipelines, are approximately 10 miles from the main platform and about five miles from each other.
Aberdeen-based Rockwater is a leading worldwide underwater contractor and is a division of Brown & Root Energy Services of Houston, Texas. Fabrication work will begin next month and the complex pipeline system will be installed in May next year.
Flowline bundles comprise a series of pipelines inside a steel casing. This Scottish invention, pioneered at the Wester site, has added up to 20% to the world's recoverable offshore oil reserves.
As well as insulated oil pipelines, the system will contain others for recovering gas and for carrying electricity lines, hydraulic fuels and specialised chemicals.
The oil will be extracted using an electrical submersible pump.
``This is a very exciting project for a number of reasons,'' said Heinz Rothermund, managing director of Shell UK Exploration and Production. ``It is another good example of making the most of our existing infrastructure, prolonging the life of our assets by using them to develop satellite fields.
``But perhaps the most significant aspect is the use of the downhole pump system. Such pumps have been used before, but never before has a system like this been installed and controlled so far away from the mother platform.''
Mr Rothermund added: ``If it performs as expected it will be an important technological step forward, which will give us another proven tool when looking at ways of developing the considerable number of small fields, which are still unexploited, particularly in the central North Sea.''
The contract for the pump system has been awarded to Inverurie-based Lasalle Engineering.
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