Offshore Structures (Britain) Ltd. is a marine offshore structure foundation manufacture based at

Haverton Hill Haverton Hill is an area within the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and ceremonial county of County Durham, England. Once considered a part of Billingham, Haverton Hill was once a thriving industrial community which has suffered significant depopulat ...

near Billingham on the north bank of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...

. The company was formed as a joint venture between

Bladt Industries Bladt Industries A/S is an international steel contractor specialising in large-scale and highly complex steel structures. Bladt Industries operate within three key areas of business providing steel solutions for the wind and renewable energy sec ...

and EEW at the factory established by ''TAG Energy Solutions''. The factory was used briefly in the late 2000s by Tees Alliance Group for a prematurely terminated contract to manufacture oil rig substructures. The works is based on the site of the Haverton Hill shipyard, initially operating as the Furness Shipbuilding Co. Ltd., established 1918. Shipbuilding at the yard ended in 1979.

History

The Haverton Hill shipyard opened in 1917 under a wartime construction programme. Shipbuilding took place at the yard from 1919 to 1969 as the Furness Shipbuilding Company under the shipping group

Furness Withy Furness Withy was a major British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Christopher Furness and Henry Withy (1852–1922) in 1891 in Hartlepool. This was achieved by the amalgamatio ...

. In 1968 the yard was acquired by Swan Hunter who operated the yard for a further decade, and finally by Smith's Dock Co. Ltd who built three ships at the yard in 1978. Shipbuilding ceased in 1979. In 2008 the shipyard reopened under Tees Alliance Group (TAG) to construct the foundation structure of an oil rig 'SeaDragon 1', initially to be leased to

Pemex Pemex (a portmanteau of Petróleos Mexicanos, which translates to ''Mexican Petroleum'' in English; ) is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company managed and operated by the Mexican government. It was formed in 1938 by nationalization and expr ...

(Mexico). In 2009 the contract between TAG and the rig development company (Sea Dragon Offshore) was terminated, with the financier (

Lloyds TSB Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exten ...

) citing financial risk, and the work transferred to a yard in Singapore with previous experience of rig construction. TAG Energy Solutions was established in 2010. The company invested in a new production facility with machines for production of large diameter steel tubes suitable for monopoles, jacket foundations and other offshore structures. In 2013 the company was awarded a contract for monopoles and transition pieces for the Humber Gateway wind farm. In September 2014 the company was reported entered insolvency with the loss of around 100 jobs, having run up a £61 million debt. In late 2014

(Denmark) and EEW (Germany) acquired the assets of Tees Alliance Group Corporate, and formed a joint venture Offshore Structures (Britain) Limited to reuse the TAG Energy facility at Billigham. An initial contract was obtained in Jan 2015 for transition pieces for the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm. As of mid 2021 the Yard is stripped empty, just a security presence.

References

External links

* * Companies based in Middlesbrough Offshore engineering Structural steel Wind power {{England-company-stub