Aker Solutions to Create 1300 New Jobs in UK by 2015

Aker Solutions to Create 1300 New Jobs in UK by 2015

 Aker Solutions aims to build up a 1 700-strong London engineering hub – thereby creating 1 300 new jobs – by 2015, as growth in global oil and gas markets drives demand for the company’s technologies and services.

Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman of Aker Solutions, shared this ambition with Prime Minister David Cameron and his Norwegian counterpart, Jens Stoltenberg, during a round-table discussion in Oslo, Norway, this morning.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Aker Solutions’ decision to create 1300 new jobs at a new engineering hub in Chiswick is great news for the local economy and it is a vote of confidence in the skill, expertise and professionalism of our engineering sector.”

“Aker Solutions now employ more than 3000 people across the UK and recently announced 500 new jobs in Aberdeen. Their expansion here is testament to the increasing depth and strength of our partnership with Norway across the spectrum of energy issues which helps to ensure that we keep household energy bills as affordable as possible for families across the country,” adds Prime Minister Cameron.

Aker Solutions provides oilfield products, systems and services for customers in the oil and gas industry, and is listed on the Oslo stock exchange. The company, which employs more than 3000 people in the UK, opened a new office in Chiswick Park, West London, last year. The start-up phase has been highly successful.

“Oil and gas engineers in London are typically experienced, highly competent and they have an international mindset. By combining our own experience with this expertise we can offer our customers engineering related to field architecture, products and technologies both in the North Sea and internationally,” says Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman in Aker Solutions.

The London office is today working on high profile field development projects, including the topside FEED (front-end engineering and design) study for Statoil’s Mariner field in the UK North Sea and a FEED contract for Det norske oljeselskap’s Draupne field on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The London office was set up to be a global engineering hub to support field development projects for the North Sea and worldwide. In the new, expanded office, Aker Solutions will be present with several other business areas, including subsea, drilling technologies and well intervention services.

“We opened the office last autumn, and we have been growing rapidly to 200 people by early June this year. It is very satisfying to see that we are attracting top engineering competence to our company. Based on this initial success and a highly favourable market outlook, we see that we have the potential to add a further 1 300 employees by 2015. This is driven by activity growth in all key oil and gas regions worldwide,” adds Eriksen.

As a result, Aker Solutions has recently signed an agreement to lease the entire 220 000 square feet of Building 6 at Chiswick Park. At full capacity, this will be able to house 1 700 personnel, including specialist engineers, project managers, administrative personnel and up to 200 customer representatives.

Aker Solutions has stated that the company expects to grow its turnover by 9-15 per cent per annum from 2011 to 2015. The company provides oilfield products, systems and services for customers in the oil and gas industry worldwide. It brings together engineering and technologies for oil and gas drilling, field development and production.

Three weeks ago, Aker Solutions announced that it is looking to grow its Aberdeen operation with 500 jobs over the next two years.

Today, Aker Solutions has approximately 3 100 employees in the UK. The company is one of Scotland’s largest employers with a workforce of more than 2 700 people in Aberdeen. In addition, the company has smaller offices and facilities in Great Yarmouth, Hastings, Maidenhead, Stockton-on-Tees and Whitstable. The company employs 25 000 people worldwide, and has annual revenues of approximately GBP 3.9 billion.

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Source: Aker Solutions, June 7, 2012