Why Invest
Why invest in Energy Gateway North East England?
- The North East is one of eight Offshore Wind Clusters, recognised for our exceptional port infrastructure, skills, supply chain and public sector support underpinning rapid sector growth.
- Strategically positioned for market access to major offshore wind developments in the North Sea basin, such as Dogger Bank, Hornsea and Firth of Forth. 80% of all UK wind farms are reachable within a 24-hr vessel time.
- Dogger Bank Wind Farm, located only 130 km from the North East Coast. Supply Chain opportunities exist for components manufacturing, major fabrication projects, mobilisation, demobilisation and a range of operations and maintenance activities.
- The Ports of Blyth, Tyne and Sunderland offer outstanding transport and logistics infrastructure. They are all very experienced in facilitating a wide range of offshore energy projects.
- An international airport and an exceptional national rail network, and the largest rapid transit system outside London, the Tyne and Wear Metro, allowing executive and workforce movement throughout region and the UK
- A pipeline of new talent: Over 124,000 students study at our five outstanding universities, with more than 54,000 studying Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics subjects
- Our highly skilled workforce is renowned for its exceptional productivity and loyalty. We employ nearly 57,000 advanced manufacturing engineering workers out of a total of 110,000 working in the wider manufacturing sector.
- Major opportunities for innovation and collaboration with the world-leading cluster of subsea engineering companies and the wider offshore energy supply chain.
- A superb portfolio of high quality industrial development sites, all with easy access to deep water ports and some with Investment Zone benefits.
- Engineering innovation, skills and quality manufacturing: We’ve got an excellent track record of designing and making things in the North East and this is reflected in the strength of the offshore energy sector.
- The North East has a fantastic array of world-class research and development and testing facilities, including the National Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult Testing facility and Tyne Pressure Testing which both support a growing energy sector and the businesses located here.
Titans Of Offshore Wind
KEY SECTORS:
Offshore renewables
Energy Gateway North East England offers everything the offshore renewables sector needs in one location. Not only is the area the home to the first offshore wind farm in the UK as well as hosting the national Offshore Renewables Catapult testing and R+D facility, we are in a prime position to supply the North Sea wind farm developments particularly for the manufacture of offshore wind components and operations and maintenance operations.
Subsea Engineering
Our region leads the way with its world renowned subsea cluster specialising in the development and manufacture of umbilical’s, flowlines, valves, ROVs and subsea trenching and cable lay equipment. Located here, developing new technologies and delivering world-class subsea solutions are companies such as Baker Hughes, TechnipFMC, Royal IHC, Osbit and SMD. This is backed up with specialist companies delivering complex subsea pipe and cable installations and engineering projects, such as JDR Cables.
Oil and Gas
Energy Gateway North East England is the leading location in England for the oil and gas sector, boasting a 40% growth since 2012, and is a major supplier of manufacturing and engineering solutions for the industry and employer of nearly 57,000 skilled workers in the region. North East England is home to world-class engineering and manufacturing, with investors including BEL Valves, Baker Hughes, Bridon-Bekaert, TechnipFMC, Royal IHC, SMD and Tekmar Energy. These companies help North East England strengthen and expand its reputation for excellence across all areas of subsea technology, offshore engineering, high-value fabrication, and pipeline and trenching. We have large fabrication yards with access to the North Sea located on the River Tyne and River Wear. In fact, over 70% of all North Sea oil and gas platforms were built in North East England. The area is also a rapidly expanding base for oil and gas related mobilisation and demobilisation operations with numerous berths and terminals across all three rivers.
Decommissioning
North East England has the highly skilled workforce, sites and exceptional infrastructure to seize the huge opportunities in decommissioning. There is a growing requirement of decommissioning of wind farms and recycling components such as blades.
In the ageing of the North Sea oil and gas field assets, the decommissioning contract work is vast – 475 installations, 5,000 subsea wells and 10,000km of pipelines. All will require large-scale engineering, subsea technology, safety management, decontamination and well-plugging expertise – our region is primed to take advantage of this market opportunity.
Our region’s strategic North Sea coast location, sites licenced to carry out this work, deep water ports, road and rail infrastructure and renowned engineering expertise, means North East England is the ideal location to site decommissioning activity.
Download our Energy Gateway North East England Brochure for further information