Major Jobs Boost For Chiswick

Aker Solutions pledges 1300 jobs over next three years

An extra 1,300 jobs in Chiswick by 2015 have been announced today (Thursday, June 7th) by engineering company Aker Solutions.

The announcement was made during a meeting in Oslo between the Norwegian company executive Chairman Øyvind Eriksen, and Prime Minister David Cameron, who welcomed the news. The Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was also present.

The company already has a base in Chiswick Park, but has decided to expand its local hub as a result of growth in global oil and gas markets which is driving demand for its technologies and services.

It recently signed an agreement to lease the entire 220,000 square foot building Six in Chiswick Park. The company described its start-up phase in Chiswick as "highly successful".

At full capacity, the new premises will be able to house 1,700 personnel, including specialist engineers, project managers, administrative personnel and up to 200 customer representatives.

The office was set up to be a global engineering hub to support field development projects for the North Sea and worldwide. In the new, expanded office, Aker Solutions will be present with several other business areas, including subsea, drilling technologies and well intervention services

The Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Aker Solutions' decision to create 1300 new jobs at a new engineering hub in Chiswick is great news for the local economy and it is a vote of confidence in the skill, expertise and professionalism of our engineering sector."

"Aker Solutions now employ more than 3000 people across the UK and recently announced 500 new jobs in Aberdeen. Their expansion here is testament to the increasing depth and strength of our partnership with Norway across the spectrum of energy issues which helps to ensure that we keep household energy bills as affordable as possible for families across the country," said Mr. Cameron.

Aker Solutions provides oilfield products, systems and services for customers in the oil and gas industry, and is listed on the Oslo stock exchange..

"Oil and gas engineers in London are typically experienced, highly competent and they have an international mindset. By combining our own experience with this expertise we can offer our customers engineering related to field architecture, products and technologies both in the North Sea and internationally," says Øyvind Eriksen, executive chairman in Aker Solutions.

The London office is currently working on high profile field development projects, including the topside FEED (front-end engineering and design) study for Statoil's Mariner field in the UK North Sea and a FEED contract for Det norske oljeselskap's Draupne field on the Norwegian continental shelf.

"We opened the office last autumn, and we have been growing rapidly to 200 people by early June this year. It is very satisfying to see that we are attracting top engineering competence to our company. Based on this initial success and a highly favourable market outlook, we see that we have the potential to add a further 1 300 employees by 2015. This is driven by activity growth in all key oil and gas regions worldwide," adds Eriksen.

Aker Solutions has stated that the company expects to grow its turnover by 9-15 per cent per annum from 2011 to 2015. The company provides oilfield products, systems and services for customers in the oil and gas industry worldwide. It brings together engineering and technologies for oil and gas drilling, field development and production.

Three weeks ago, Aker Solutions announced that it is looking to grow its Aberdeen operation with 500 jobs over the next two years.

Today, Aker Solutions has approximately 3,100 employees in the UK. The company is one of Scotland's largest employers with a workforce of more than 2 700 people in Aberdeen. In addition, the company has smaller offices and facilities in Great Yarmouth, Hastings, Maidenhead, Stockton-on-Tees and Whitstable. The company employs 25 000 people worldwide, and has annual revenues of approximately GBP 3.9 billion.

June 7, 2012