10,000 oil rig construction jobs lost as North Sea contracts go to Korea

[eridani]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/20/10000-jobs-lost-uk-oil-rig-makers?CMP=twt_gu

Up to 10,000 engineering jobs could have been created if the government had supported British companies bidding to win contracts to build North Sea oil rigs for energy giants, it has been claimed.

The contracts went to South Korea, with the result that the industry has shed tens of thousands of jobs, something that has major implications for the UK's ability to build the next generation of carbon-friendly energy infrastructure, such as windfarms.

The claims comes from OGN, a British oil rig-maker, in a letter to MPs. The row has echoes of the furore that greeted the news in 2011 that Derby-based train manufacturer Bombardier had lost out to German manufacturer Siemens in the battle to win the £1.4bn Thameslink trains contract.

In the letter, seen by the Observer, OGN warns that British manufacturers will go out of business if ministers do not require North Sea oil operators to buy components from them. Dennis Clark, OGN's chairman, claims that in the past two years only 7% of new platforms ordered for the North Sea were made in Britain.

[glowing]

1. take the money from the oil companies, and then do what is needed for Alt Energy.

If the "oil men" are in the business of providing energy, they will figure out how to do so and stay viable. If they cannot adapt, one would hope they take there exit much like stage coaches from years past.

[dotymed]

2. If corporations and banksters

were regulated to do the right thing,our world would survive. We have allowed deregulation on a massive scale by "our" greedy politicians.
Democratic Socialism is a system that could save us, unfortunately corporatism has made that impossible. There will be a few Latin American countries left after the completion of the feudal system that has always been at the heart of capitalism.