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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » SeaDragon has gone... now the Tees Valley must move on.
While there is understandable anger over the decision to shift construction of two giant drilling rigs to Singapore, it makes little sense to dwell on it.
There will be no dramatic, injury-time bid to save the project and efforts must now be focused on winning other work that puts the Tees Valley on the world map.
Tees Alliance Group - the consortium originally designated to carry out the work before its contract was terminated - is feverishly trying to land new projects for the local supply chain.
If these efforts bear fruit, there will be plenty of work for local contractors. I understand that one oil rig construction project could create around 1,000 jobs in the region.
Darlington's Cleveland Bridge, a main contractor on SeaDragon, is refusing to be downbeat, even though it stands to lose millions of pounds of potential revenue as a result of the decision.
Bullish MD Brian Rogan is frantically pursuing new work "every week" as he aims to boost turnover to ã70m this year.
This positive attitude must be adopted by the rest of the supply chain. Even in recession there is plenty of work out there for skilled manufacturing talent - which this region has in abundance.
This doesn't mean that lessons cannot be learned from SeaDragon.
Could contractual arrangements with commissioning firm SeaDragon Offshore Ltd (SDO) have been tighter? Why has it taken almost one year for the situation to be resolved?
And should more questions have been asked about SDO's risk profile last summer after the company failed to strike a takeover deal with Mumbai-based Great Offshore?
Perhaps was Tees Valley simply a victim of economic circumstance in that SDO came under increasing financial pressure and felt it had to move the goalposts?
Either way, arguing over the whys and wherefores is not going to change the decision.
What's important now is that every local firm involved gets paid for work completed.
Only then can a line be drawn under the whole saga, which has brought around ã50m-ã75m to the Tees Valley and demonstrated its ability to compete for major international projects.
Not enough in the eyes of some, but certainly no mean achievement.
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