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

Billingham Billingham is a List of towns in England, town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in County Durham, England. The town is on the north side of the River Tees and is governed as part of the Borough of Stockton-on-Tees unitary authority ...

on the north bank of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern-day history of the river has been tied with the industries ...

. 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. It operate within three key areas of business providing steel solutions for the wind and renewable energy sector, for the o ...

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 United Kingdom, British transport business. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Christopher Furness, 1st Baron Furness, Christopher Furness and Henry Withy (1852–1922) in 18 ...

. In 1968 the yard was acquired by

Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three pow ...

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 Mexico, Mexican State ownership, state-owned Petroleum industry, petroleum corporation managed and operated by the government of Mexico, ...

(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 major British retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Established in Birmingham in 1765, Lloyds Bank e ...

) 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