A demolition company is to investigate Orkney as a potential location for a new facility to decommission redundant oil and gas rigs.

Birmingham-based DSM Demolition has held early discussions with Orkney Islands Council and visited Lyness on Hoy to carry out an initial assessment.

The company believes that Lyness has the capacity to provide a base for its activities in northern Scotland, and will now carry out further exploratory work.

It will also engage with the oil and gas sector to determine potential business for a new facility and undertake the environmental assessment and feasibility testing processes which are essential to ensuring the sustainability of development of this type.

The project could create scores of jobs, as spin-off work for local contractors and income for the council which owns the site.

Council convener Steven Heddle said: “This project has the potential to create significant employment, a range of business opportunities for local companies, and considerable economic benefits for Orkney as a whole.

“There will be a growing demand for oil and gas decommissioning facilities in the years ahead. Lyness and the natural deep-water harbour of Scapa Flow, with their location close to the North Sea, are ideally located to serve as a potential base for work of this kind.

“We now look forward to working with the company. Our priorities will be to ensure that Orkney benefits economically and that a development of this type is approached in an environmentally responsible manner, in order that we maintain our excellent track record for stewardship of our local environment and the seas around us.”