InfraStrata: Harland and Wolff's new owner
- Published
Harland and Wolff Shipyard was founded in 1861
Belfast's Harland and Wolff shipyard, best known for building the Titanic, has a new owner.
The yard went into administration in August following the collapse of its Norwegian parent company.
On Tuesday, London-based energy firm InfraStrata announced it had bought the business for £6m, saving 79 jobs.
The company has been eyeing up another opportunity in Northern Ireland since 2015, but it has not yet come to fruition.
What is InfraStrata?
The firm was once known as Portland Gas plc but it adopted its current name in December 2009, almost two years after demerging from Egdon Resources - an onshore-focused oil and gas exploration and production business.
It then began looking into a range of potential energy infrastructure projects around the world.
In November 2015, it took the decision to focus on developing an underground natural gas storage facility at Islandmagee in County Antrim.
Islandmagee Energy Limited, the operating firm developing this project, is 100% owned by InfraStrata.
InfraStrata says its primary goal is to "profitably realise the value" of the gas storage project and create an energy hub at Islandmagee.
It is also planning a separate, floating gas storage facility.
It previously carried out exploratory oil drilling at Woodburn Forest near Carrickfergus, which sparked protests about water supply fears.
No oil was found at the site and InfraStrata later moved out of the oil business.
Workers have been celebrating the takeover of the yard
What does it have in store for Harland and Wolff?
It says it will retain the 79 workers who are still employed, and hopes to increase the workforce by "several hundred" over five years.
It initially plans to focus on metal fabrication for the Islandmagee and floating gas storage projects.
InfraStrata CEO John Wood said he believed there would also be opportunities to bring in new clients because of the "diverse skill set" at the yard.
Mr Wood, who formerly served in the Merchant Navy on the Harland and Wolff-built SS Canberra, said the Islandmagee project meant InfraStrata brought something to the table that other companies could not.
"I've got experience in shipyards, fabrication, oil and gas and defence," he said.
"You bring that all together it covers all eventualities that the future might throw at us."
Mr Wood added that he wanted to get a new apprenticeship scheme up and running to provide "stability for the next generations coming through".
What is the Islandmagee project?
InfraStrata has proposed storing natural gas in seven underground caverns beneath Larne Lough, which it says would be capable of storing up to 500 million cubic metres of gas - enough to fill 200,000 Olympic-size swimming pools - in Permian salt beds.
The company says this is a "well-proven technique" that represents the most environmentally-friendly, safe and efficient method of storing large volumes of natural gas.
The storage facility would be built under Larne Lough
It claims it would provide more than 25% of the UK's natural gas storage capacity.
Any sticking points?
There is an important caveat: The project does not have all the necessary planning approvals and also faces considerable local opposition on environmental grounds, reports BBC News NI's Agriculture and Environment correspondent, Conor Macauley.
Back in 2013, there were hundreds of complaints from residents and environmentalists concerned about concentrated salt water, a by-product of the construction process, being pumped into the sea.
Islandmagee Energy says the brine will be discharged into the Irish Sea "at an approved distance offshore".
- Published1 October 2019
- Published6 August 2019
