NORWEGIAN energy services firm Aker yesterday unveiled plans to create 500 energy jobs in Aberdeenshire over the next two years, swelling its headcount in the region beyond the 3,000 mark.
The energy jobs boost, announced as part of First Minister Alex Salmond’s visit to Norway, will filter through over the next two years and comes on top of 350 jobs created since August.
Aker chief financial officer Leif Borge said demand for the company’s services was growing in both the North Sea and in international markets, fuelling the need to take on more staff.
Growth in Scotland is coming from the firm’s subsea and drilling technology businesses in Dyce and its Portlethen-based well intervention services unit.
About 2,700 of Aker’s 23,500 staff are based in Aberdeenshire, with a further team of 200 engineers in London
Salmond said: “Aker is one of Norway’s flagship companies, with extensive global operations and already a huge presence in Scotland. I am delighted it now plans further investment and job creation in the city, delivering a great boost for the North-east and wider Scottish economy.”
News of the jobs boost came as Inverness-based Global Energy Group announced plans to open a permanent office in Norway, having had a presence in the country for the past seven years.
The firm’s Global Project Services (GPS) division already works with Norwegian clients – including Aker, Kvaerner and Statoil – and has now secured premises near Bergen to build its business in the country.
Gavin Macdonald, managing director of GPS, said his firm was already working on major construction, maintenance and modification projects in the power generation sectors but said that the firm now needed to commit to opening a permanent office so that it can grow its business in Scandinavia.
