First Minister Alex Salmond has welcomed the decision of French energy engineering and construction company Technip to locate its North Sea offshore renewables head office in Aberdeen.

Technip, which already employs around 800 people in Aberdeen, yesterday confirmed the decision as it hosted a round-table meeting with the First Minister and senior executives of leading French companies involved in renewable energy development at its global headquarters in Paris.

Mr Salmond urged the executives attending the meeting to seize the unprecedented opportunities to develop renewables and carbon capture & storage off Scotland's coast.

He said: "I'm very pleased to meet key figures from the leading companies in France's energy sector and delighted that Technip are continuing to seize the opportunities available in Scotland and further investing in renewable energy developments.

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"Technip's decision to base its offshore renewables operations in Aberdeen is a huge vote of confidence in Scotland's position as a global leader in renewables innovation, and underlines the massive wealth of human capital and energy and engineering knowledge in the north-east.

"We expect thousands of jobs to be created in Scotland in the next few years as a result of expansion in the renewable energy sector, and decisions like this will help ensure that those expectations are realised in terms of both job creation and investment."

In the Scottish offshore wind sector - where Scotland has an estimated one-quarter of Europe's potential capacity - tens of billions of pounds are expected to be invested across 12 sites over the next decade.

Scottish waters also provide the potential to generate up to one-quarter of the continent's tidal power and one-tenth of its wave power.

Thierry Pilenko, Chairman and CEO of Technip, added: "Technip is a world leader in the fields of project management, engineering and construction for the oil & gas industry but is also committed to implementing expertise from its core business in service of renewable energies.

"In this context, the Group's operating centre in Aberdeen will be able to capitalize on its expertise in offshore operations, fleet management and project execution to tackle the challenges of the renewable energy industry and succeed in its new assignment."

(GK/BMcC)