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A Caithness company is expanding into the global oil and gas engineering sector with significant backing from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

The £2.7m development plan is being taken forward by former Umax directors Jim Mills and Eddie Maclellan who bought Nicolson Engineering (NES) at Bower from founders Jim and Catherine Nicolson. Drawing on their success in pipeline construction and heavy engineering, the new owners plan to develop the firm's strengths in precision machining and fabrication and pitch them to global markets..

HIE has approved £500,000 grant assistance towards a new fabrication workshop, office block and amenities at the Bower site. It's anticipated the expansion will bring around 50 new, high quality jobs to complement the 29-strong workforce currently employed by NES.

Mr Maclellan explained: "Our vision for NES is to transform the scale and range of its operation by entering new markets in the global oil and gas engineering support sector. The company will continue to support existing local markets and the machine shops will continue to operate very much as they currently do. But in addition a new workforce will be recruited and trained in heavy fabrication techniques suited for deployment all over the world."

The new base will enable the firm to fabricate large components such as well-head installations and pipeline bundle tow-heads as well as highly engineered elements currently manufactured in the south of England for Dounreay.  As a 'boot camp' for the new workforce, it will be a venue for staff to be trained in generic fabrication skills and in specific disciplines required for individual projects.

Mr Maclellan explained: "We will continue to service Dounreay and bid for local contracts but our long term strategy is to diversify away from a reliance on Dounreay. We will be using our experience of sub-sea assembly fabrication and pipeline manufacture and knowledge of the market, particularly in Egypt, Dubai, Angola and the Unites States, to grow the company to be a genuine world-beater."

Roy Kirk, HIE's area manager for Caithness and Sutherland said: "The ambitions of this company fit exactly with the Scottish Government's economic strategy. This venture could have been developed in a number of other countries, so it's particularly encouraging that Caithness has been chosen as the best place to base such internationally focused proposals.

"A great deal of interest has already been shown in this project by engineers keen to come, or indeed return, to Caithness and it will provide high quality jobs for local, skilled people in the coming years as the workforce at Dounreay is reduced."