General Electric chief reaffirms Scottish commitment

General Electric boss Jeff Immelt held talks with First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday about possible further investment in Scotland.

The company's chairman and chief executive, was paying his first visit to Scotland since devolution.

Salmond said he was keen to see the company expand its operations in Scotland. It already employs 2,000 in Scotland in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Livingston, Montrose and Prestwick. Apart from energy, including oil & gas, it has investments in Scotland in aviation and finance. Last year it completed a 2.75 million investment in its Montrose facility to create a global services headquarters.

After the meeting, Salmond said: "This meeting has reaffirmed GE's interest in Scotland and confirms Scotland's reputation as a nation open for business and ripe for investment. GE's announcement that it is ready to invest in the UK and hire the people with skills who will make this a reality is good news. Today, among other issues, we have been discussing Scotland's potential - through its resources and technology - to grow our renewable energy industry massively. This visit reinforces GE's commitment to Scotland and Mr Immelt recognises that Scotland is an increasingly attractive prospect for future investment opportunities.

Immelt added: "We are proud of the strong employee and investment base that we have here in Scotland.

"The expertise and experience we see in the aviation, energy and oil & gas industries makes Scotland a very attractive place to do business."

During the visit to Aberdeen he inspected three GE subsea production trees bound for the Block 15 Kizomba Satellites project off the West African coast of Angola.

The subsea trees are being delivered as part of a wider contract win announced for Aberdeen last September.

GE is supplying a range of subsea equipment, including the latest deepwater tree connectors, to drive oil production at the Kizomba Satellites development.

Immelt also met GE Oil & Gas trainee fitters from Angola who are in Scotland to take part in an intensive six month subsea assembly and testing familiarization programme.

GE Oil & Gas in Aberdeen yesterday announced a $113m (71.2m) contract win in Angola to supply gas turbines and compressors for deployment in the offshore Angola oil and gas fields owned by Sonangol, Angola's national oil company, and operated by Total, ExxonMobil, BP and Statoil.