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LEWIS Offshore, now in the midst of work on its largest contract worth £15 million, is playing an absolutely vital role in the economy of the Western Isles this winter.
At a time when the overall economy of the Islands, particularly in the construction industry, has been hard hit by Council spending restrictions, the fabrication yard poured between £7 and £8 million into the local economy as wages and salaries during the financial year ending last September.
In addition, orders are pouring out from the yard at Arnish to all sorts of Island suppliers and producers. The demand ranges from sub-contracted work on fabrication and components, to orders for all manner of tools and small pieces of equipment to say nothing of many other necessities ranging from toilet rolls to binding tape.
There is also a huge demand for work for carriers moving packages and shipments on and off the Islands, for car hire and taxis and other forms of transport.
Business use of the lifeline air services is also boosted by the need for company executives to fly to meetings on the mainland, in England or abroad as they search for more business.
And this is a business driven by its international success - it did receive £500,000 from Western Isles Enterprise to assist in preparation work but this sum, unlike those involved in many other Island projects, is totally dwarfed by the size of the present contract from Elf Petroleum for the jackets in the Elgin and Franklin fields.
The present contract is due for completion on June 15 but the yard's management are hard at work seeking other work to try to maintain the continuity of employment if at all possible, avoiding the switchback effect of last year when numbers shot up to around 500 and then fell back to less than 50.
At the moment they are fighting for one similar sized contract to the present one and three smaller ones but they are conscious that even as little as a £75,000 difference on a tender bid of many millions can cost them a vital opportunity for work.
Managing director Mr Peter Webster pointed out the high quality of the work required on the project where paint coverings are measured in microns; jacket lives are measured in decades and tolerances on the tubes rolled at the plant have to be accurate to within a tenth of a per cent of the diameter.
Starting around a fortnight ago, more 1,000 man hours have been spent moving vast amounts of material out into the open yard area for the final fabrication work to start. This has to be done outside, despite problems caused by the weather because of the size of the final structure. The mud mats of the jackets which enclose the piles that support the platforms will end up around 90 metres beneath the surface of the sea.
At present around 400 people are employed at Arnish working two shifts. All but about 50 of these are local people. This project will keep most of them going until the summer but it is hoped before then to have new contracts providing more work.
This week, as the fabrication work moves to a crescendo with the first of the sub-assemblies being completed in the giant shed, company executives will be off the Islands in meetings aimed at securing more work.
Original article Stornoway Gazette Feb 18 1997.
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