During the Olympic Games, Ministers are hosting the Global Investment Conference, launching the British Business Embassy and its series of Global Business Summits. On 6 and 7 August, the focus is on energy Ministers have announced substantial new funding awards for Green investment.
Chancellor George Osborne and Business Secretary Vince Cable will today welcome substantial new investment from leading global oil and gas companies:
- GDF SUEZ, Centrica and Bayerngas sign £1.4 billion Field Development Plan for Southern North Sea.
- BP investing £60m in an International Centre for Advanced Materials (BP-ICAM).
- Versalis investing €50-60 million to expand Scottish elastomer production.
- Neftex to recruit 50 new staff after winning new contracts.
- Tangent Technologies Limited wins £105,000 Australian contracts and expands UK jobs.
- Melrose Resources plc granted a six-year concession for natural gas extraction in the Bulgarian Black Sea.
Up to 4,000 UK jobs will be supported by the GDF SUEZ- operated Cygnus project – the extraction of shallow water gas from an 18 billion cubic metre field under the Southern North Sea – in partnership with Centrica and Bayerngas. And an International Centre for Advanced Materials created by BP, with universities including the University of Manchester, will build on the UK’s world leading status in research and development.
Key green investment announcements from the British Business Embassy on 6 August included:
- UK Green Investments (UKGI) team, based in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has announced a contract to provide initial funding of £100m to two Non-Domestic Energy Efficiency (NDEE) fund managers – Equitix and SDCL.
- Closed Loop Recycling, the world’s first food-grade plastic bottle recycling plant to handle both PET and HDPE bottles, has announced £12 million expansion plans that will double the current capacity of its Dagenham plant and create the most advanced plastics purification facility in the UK. This is expected to create and safeguard 100 jobs.
- Grupotec, the Spanish global engineering company, has announced plans to expand UK ground and roof solar PV installations in the UK.
- Power Electronics to open a UK headquarters in September.
The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has set out how the renewable energy sector is delivering vital investment and jobs to the UK. Dagenham-based firm Closed Loop Recycling is announcing plans to double its capacity, creating and safeguarding 100 jobs. This will form the most advanced plastics purification facility in the UK.
