Special feature: Nigg success shows what can be done when we pull together

Iwas all of six years old when my father packed the family into our Austin 1800 and we set out for a road on the Black Isle which commanded the best views over the Cromarty Firth.
It was a bright but not especially warm August day and, by the time we reached our destination, our car was one of hundreds crammed onto the grass verges and squeezed into laybys. Some people leant on the fence, binoculars in hand, others sat on the grass or stayed in their cars to wait.

Eventually, we saw what we had come to see. The massive floating jacket of the Highland One oil platform eased out of the Nigg fabrication yard across the firth and was then half pulled and half pushed on the start of its journey out to its eventual berth far in the North Sea.
Back in 1974, Highland One was the biggest permanent production structure in the world, a feat of engineering containing more steel than the Eiffel Tower, on its way to kick-start the North Sea oil boom.

To a six-year-old, it was both impressive and disappointing. It was certainly huge but, to me, it did not look like an oil rig. It was only the supporting structure (not the platform itself) and it was on its side. 

But we watched until it disappeared out of sight, aware that we had seen a piece of Scottish industrial history in the making, one which placed the Easter Ross yard right at the centre of Britain’s modern energy future.

Almost four decades later, Nigg had been mothballed, unable to compete with cheaper, Far Eastern fabrication yards. As the weeds took over and the quays started to rot, Nigg’s future was, at best, bleak and, at worst, non existent.

Now though, Nigg is thriving. The port, run, managed and owned by the Global Energy Group, is at the centre of a superhub of ports, factories and harbour facilities making up Inverness & The Cromarty Firth Green Freeport.

It is at the centre of the offshore renewables revolution, bringing together the various parts of the offshore turbines and taking them out to sea.

Part of that exciting future comes from the cable factory rising from the sand and the mud on one side of the Nigg site.

The factory is being built by Japanese firm Sumitomo Electric UK Power Cables Ltd (SEUK), a subsidiary of Japanese company Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd.

When it is finished next year, the plant will be dominated by a 45m-tall structure, needed to coat the cables so they are ready for the rigours of the sea.

Fed on tracks under a road that stretches along the side of the site, the cables will be spooled onto cable-laying ships docked at the quayside.

The cables, some up to 80km long, will then be used to connect islands to the mainland, country to country and turbines to offshore substations – the basic infrastructure that all the offshore wind projects need to start turning wind into electricity.

It is exactly the sort of long-term, supply-chain investment Scotland is in desperate need of, providing skilled jobs and deep-rooted economic benefit to coastal rural communities like those in Easter Ross.

Yet, crucially, this investment by Sumitomo would not have happened without Crown Estate Scotland. Indeed, the Sumitomo project shows not only the unique role that Crown Estate Scotland can play in projects like this, but what can be achieved in the future if it is given the chance to do more.

It is exactly the sort of long-term, supply chain investment Scotland is in desperate need of, providing skilled jobs and deep-rooted economic benefit.

Crown Estate Scotland stepped in to both bring differing interests together (something that was proving to be very challenging as the land under consideration was owned by three different parties) and to use its financial clout to act as a land intermediary.

Crown Estate Scotland bought the land necessary for the cable factory and is now leasing it to Global Energy Group, which will buy it outright over a period of time.

By acting as an ‘honest broker’ in what had appeared to be an almost impossible job of bridging the gaps between potential foreign developer, landowners and port owner, Crown Estate Scotland got this deal over the line.

The result is that Sumitomo is now building a High Voltage Direct Current cable factory, satisfying at least part of the demand from the renewables industry, providing good, well-paid industrial jobs in rural Scotland and giving the country the sort of supply chain base it needs. The factory is due to be in full production by the autumn of 2026.

But the wider point here is that Crown Estate Scotland was fulfilling its corporate objective to both invest in Scotland’s port and related infrastructure and also to act as enabler to the wider ambitions to increase Scotland’s supply chain for the renewables sector. 

Ports and harbours are key to Crown Estate Scotland and they are key to Scotland’s progress as an offshore renewables powerhouse.Nigg provides just one example of the way in which Crown Estate Scotland can step in when others cannot. Crown Estate Scotland has an exemplary reputation as a fair and impartial broker (without vested interests or political bias), it has financial heft and it has a long and established history as a guardian and developer of ports and harbours.

But what the Nigg project has shown is that there is not one solution to the core issue of how to develop our ports and harbours to become long-term, sustainable supply chain bases for the offshore renewables sector.

All those with a part to play – and there are many actors involved from port authorities to other government-funded bodies and enterprise agencies – have to start from the position that flexibility is the key.

There is never going to be a one-size-fits-all approach to this issue. All parties have to look first at the most desirable outcome and then work out how best to achieve that, regardless of anything else.

Because of the subsidy regime, the offshore renewables market does not operate in the way other markets do. That is why public bodies like Crown Estate Scotland have to play a role, supporting early development and carrying some of the risk.

The only way we are going to avoid a boom-and-bust scenario where the hardware is supplied from abroad and the only jobs in Scotland are temporary, is to build up the supply chain slowly and sustainably. This was done successfully at Nigg and it can be done elsewhere.

To ensure there are local, deep-rooted jobs, government and its agencies need to work hard at training and apprenticeships. There is a small college on site at Nigg to train locals to work in the industry which is a great example of what can be done with a bit of forward thinking.

The offshore renewables market is a global one and Scottish ports are competing with operators in the Netherlands, Germany and further afield. Nigg – with the Sumitomo investment giving it extra clout – is clearly a leading player in this market.

If we want to see these long-term jobs and community benefits in other parts of the country, then we have to follow its example – and that means using organisations like Crown Estate Scotland to get major new investments over the line.

Those glory days of the early 1970s when Highland One emerged from the fabrication yards as a symbol of the North Sea oil revolution may be long gone but a newer, brighter, cleaner and sustainable long-term industrial future could be within our reach, if only we have the wisdom and foresight to seize it. 

This article is sponsored by Crown Estate Scotland.

www.crownestatescotland.com