£140m oil contracts creates 350 jobs at BiFab

Prime Minister David Cameron visited the firm and pledged his support to manufacturing after the announcement of the new contracts involving the design, procurement and construction of major components for a new oil platform.

He told workers at the firm that, in the past, Britain's economy was "too reliant on financial services and banking".

Mr Cameron stressed the importance of "high-quality manufacturing" and said that the government will "try and do our bit" to help manufacturing.

The new work at BiFab, for Premier Oil's Solan development near Shetland, means the workforce will have doubled in size by December. 

It also allows the firm to continue the apprenticeship programme it began five years ago.

The contracts are expected to be completed by April 2014 and will involve BiFab's sites in Methil and Burntisland in Fife and Arnish on Lewis.

Mr Cameron met bosses and apprentices as he toured BiFab's site in Buckhaven in Fife, a visit he described as a "good intermission" between taking the French president to the Olympic handball and taking the Russian president to watch judo at the Games.

BiFab works with the oil and gas sector and the renewable energy sector. 

The Prime Minister hailed the company as a "great British business that is doing fantastic things".

"Our economy had become far too reliant on financial services and banking, rather than actually making things," he said.

"And here what you're going to be doing over these coming years, if everything goes well in the oil sector and the renewables sector, is really important, high-quality manufacturing, and I think that's something to celebrate and something to stand up for.

"It is absolutely vital we have got diverse supplies of energy, that we fully exploit the North Sea and the oil and gas that is available but also we make the most of the renewable energies of the future, and you're doing both those things right here at BiFab."