UK rig maker wants government decree to buy equipment from British firms
LONDON -- A UK drilling rig manufacturer wants the government to require North Sea operators to buy components from British firms, The Times has reported.
Closely-held OGN says that in the past two years just 7% of new platforms ordered for the North Sea were made in the U.K., and OGN was last week passed over by Norwegian giant Statoil for its development of the Mariner field.
"If you keep placing this kind of work overseas, U.K. capacity will be diminished because it isn't viable," OGN Chairman Dennis Clark is quoted as saying. "The industry has already withered on the vine. [Prime Minister] David Cameron gets on his high horse about developing U.K. manufacturing, but it's all political hogwash."
12/24/2012