Official opening of King Bay (Dampier) supply base

Further evidence of the industrial boom in the North-West came today with the official opening of the Mermaid Marine supply base at King Bay in Dampier.

Premier Carmen Lawrence said the multi-million dollar project provided a further confidence boost for investment in the region along with more than 90 jobs at the company's operations in the area.

The Mermaid Marine operation was intended as a 'one-stop' support service for the many petroleum and exploration ventures operating in the North-West of the State.

"The marine services business at Dampier has enormous potential and Mermaid Marine already has plans for doubling its supply base operations on to vacant Port Authority land adjacent to its site," Dr Lawrence said.

"It has brought new jobs to the Pilbara and many more will come with the expansion."

The Premier said the company had been enterprising in the way in which it had developed its small vessel business and then identified a market for stockpiling equipment and supplying other needs for the oil and gas industry and had set about capturing that market.

Mermaid Marine also would be filing an expression of interest in other vacant Dampier Port Authority land to the west of to their site.

It planned a marine services facility on this land with a new small vessel berth, cyclone-proof harbour for small vessels and a slipway for maintenance of vessels.  It was expected the work would cost about $25 million, create jobs and contribute to the local economy.

"Mermaid Marine's operation is a very real demonstration that the Pilbara is continuing to boom and makes a mockery of the Opposition's claims that the area has stagnated," Dr Lawrence said.

"Apart from a direct insult to the people of the region who have worked so hard to ensure that progress continues, the Opposition has ignored the true story of what is happening in the area."

The Premier said that there was at least $4 billion in major projects being commenced in the Pilbara and with the potential for a huge expansion in LNG, the economy of the Pilbara was booming.

"Mermaid Marine's new base, together with the facilities of Woodside, the Dampier Port Authority and Brambles, now makes the Port of Dampier the undisputed hub of the oil and gas industry's operations into the waters of the North West Shelf," she said.