​Workforce boost to Arnish officially confirmed

​Harland & Wolff, who operate the Arnish fabrication yard, have announced an order which underpins its future and an expansion of the workforce which is already under way.
By Brian Wilson
Published 7th Mar 2024, 11:03 GMT
A recruitment drive for Arnish is currently underway.A recruitment drive for Arnish is currently underway.
A recruitment drive for Arnish is currently underway.

Wednesday’s announcement has been pending for some weeks and provided the background to the Gazette’s recent story that Arnish is increasing its workforce to 200 with a secure order book for the next two years.

The announcement confirmed that Harland & Wolff Holdings “has signed a five-year Master Services Agreement for the fabrication of large structures with a global oil services company supplying subsea infrastructure across the major hydrocarbon basins around the globe.

“The Company has now received its first purchase order under that agreement to fabricate six subsea structures with a contract value of approximately £3 million. These highly specialised structures are used in oil and gas platforms and the surrounding infrastructure, capable of withstanding pressures of 430 bar (6,235 psi) and as such are mission critical parts”.

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The structures “will be built over the next 18 months at the company's Arnish site in a staged delivery programme”. The fact this order is solely for Arnish is a particularly welcome vote of confidence.

John Wood, chief executive of the group, said: "I am delighted that Arnish is recognised as a centre of excellence to deliver critical subsea infrastructure.

"This contract marks a significant step for the Company and builds on the highly technical work the yard has already undertaken on suction anchors, piles and the work it is currently performing for the Sea Rose FPSO Contract.

“These specialised subsea structures are a new product area for Harland & Wolff and we expect that successful delivery of this contract will open up significant opportunities for additional contracts in subsea infrastructure going forward."

There was a second piece of good news this week with possible Arnish implications.

Harland & Wolff have won a £100 million contract over two years to build, transport and install four floating pontoons in the Falkland Islands.

A company statement said that “conditional on the award of the final contract, the Company intends to spread the work across its multiple facilities to provide optionality and de-risk the fabrication of these pontoons”.

Albert Allan, managing director at Arnish, told the Gazette that while some of the Falklands steel work might come to Lewis, the yard’s current projections do not require it.

Harland & Wolff’s other three yards are at Belfast, Appledore and Methil.