John Lawrie Group to build at port site

Aberdeen, Scotland-based John Lawrie Group has announced plans to make a multimillion-dollar investment to develop a new scrap recycling and ship decommissioning site at the Port of Dundee in Scotland.

John Lawrie Group says it has reached an agreement with Forth Ports to establish the new location. Both organizations will invest in the project, which will see an existing 2-acre site at the city port redeveloped to create a new, purpose-built concrete pad. “The site will support the existing supply chain in Dundee in delivering oil and gas and decommissioning projects in the city,” according to John Lawrie Group.

The businesses have invested a combined £5 million ($6.45 million) in the project, which covers construction costs, the long-term lease of the site and the purchase of plant and equipment. John Lawrie Group will use the site to dismantle obsolete offshore infrastructure brought ashore during oil and gas decommissioning projects and for scrap processing operations.

“This is a significant investment for John Lawrie Group and comes 12 months after we acquired a metal recycling facility on Shetland,” says Dave Weston, John Lawrie Metals managing director. “It underlines our commitment to support the oil and gas decommissioning sector and forms part of our long-term strategy to develop John Lawrie Group’s operations across the country,” he adds.

Says David Webster, Forth Ports Senior Port Manager for Dundee and Leith, “This is a major milestone in Forth Ports’ strategy to develop a full service oil and gas decommissioning hub here at the Port of Dundee. The opening of the facility in early 2020 will be a very visible sign of the Port of Dundee’s ambition to support the North Sea oil and gas decommissioning sector.”

The facility will be operated by John Lawrie Group’s metals division, which the firm says annually processes around 200,000 metric tons of scrap metal.