We have driven into Aberdeen, not to stay, just to peek. We don't spend much time in large places usually but we found much of interest today.
In the Middle Ages, Aberdeen had a small harbour that was prone to silting. Trading boats still negotiated the waters bringing hundreds of barrels of imports from across the seas each year.
Today, the harbour has undergone much renovation. Massive boats the size of heavy metal skyscrapers nudge the docks. Berths stretch along the enlarged harbour and thousands of boats find their way in and out with the help of a modern control tower, which looks like something straight out of an international airport hub.
Much of the money pumped into the harbour, and Aberdeen, comes from the oil and gas work that is going on just offshore in the depths of the ocean. Aberdeen is the oil and gas capital of the United Kingdom. Men risk their lives every day working on these massive metal platforms in some of the roughest seas on the planet. The hydrocarbons that they are pulling out of the sea bed are generating huge money this side of Scotland.
To illustrate: there are more multi-millionaires in Aberdeen than in anywhere in the UK. London comes second.
Salaries are higher in Aberdeen than anywhere in Scotland: 41% higher.
The price of a regular lot to build a new house in Aberdeen regularly hits the £300,000 mark. Even on the edge of town lot prices can run at £100,000.
8,500 passengers a day use Aberdeen Airport; and it has the one of the busiest heliports in the world: transporting some 400,000 helicopter passengers a year.
Amazing statistics.
And while the oil and gas last, so too, will Aberdeen's growth and inventiveness. Last year, production was down 5%. Luckily, the city fathers are thinking ahead and researching and developing infrastructure for alternative energies: including wind and wave power. Sustainable. Renewable. Not a moment too soon.
Ships dwarf the dock |
Model of the Murchison offshore platform |
Housing is in short supply |
Fancy a move to Aberdeen? I must tell the girls there are millionairs aplenty.
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