New decommissioning hub at Aberdeen South Harbour

The new hub will be located within Crathes Quay at South Harbour and deliver dismantling, recycling, and reuse services with a key focus on subsea infrastructure. The jobs boost is expected over the next 12 months and CessCon will be encouraging applications from people living locally.

The facility is being established under a Memorandum of Understanding between the Port and CessCon, which aims to establish Aberdeen as a centre of excellence and port of choice for the offshore decommissioning sector. The agreement complements and expands the decommissioning services currently offered at the Port’s North Harbour and CessCon’s Energy Park Fife Decommissioning Facility.

The South Harbour decommissioning hub will offer heavy lift zones, impermeable concrete dismantlement and processing areas, water collection and treatment facilities, material storage areas, offices, and canteen facilities.

CessCon has a minimum target on all projects of 98% reuse and recycling (by weight) of all material and has achieved over 99% reuse and recycling on several projects to date.

The South Harbour expansion significantly enhances the Port’s capability and capacity, adding 1.4km of deepwater berths, considerable heavy-lift, flexible laydown space and expansive project areas. 

The Port commenced a ‘soft start’ to operations at South Harbour in July and has already welcomed a range of vessels while construction continues at pace. South Harbour will be operational by the end of October 2022 and construction will conclude in Q2 2023 when the final quay is brought into service.

The expanded Port of Aberdeen is at the heart of the North East Scotland Green Freeport bid which will create up to 32,000 high quality jobs and opportunities for those that need them most, boost GVA by £8.5 billion and transform the region into the ‘Net Zero Capital of Europe’. The bid is backed by a wide range of private sector companies, academia and parliamentarians from across the political divide.

Bob Sanguinetti, Chief Executive, Port of Aberdeen, said:

“Decommissioning is an important part of the UK's energy transition and there are growing opportunities to reuse, repurpose and recycle material during the decommissioning process. We are keenly focused on this with CessCon and it complements our vision of becoming Scotland’s premier net zero port at the heart of the nation’s energy transition.”

“South Harbour is an asset of national strategic significance for the Scottish and UK Governments. Green Freeport status for North East Scotland is essential if we’re to maximise the economic benefit of the project for the local community and the national economy.”

Lee Hanlon, Chief Executive, CessCon Decom, said:

“The new facility will be capable of handling turnkey decommissioning projects and the associated vessels. The substantial laydown and processing areas and water depths allow us to accommodate vessels up to 300m in length. With direct access to the North Sea, the facility is well placed to service the growing decommissioning market in parallel with our Energy Park Fife Decommissioning Facility in Methil, Fife.”