5 December 2012 Last updated at 13:55 ET

Hartlepool firm Heerema starts work on gas platforms

The Heerema factory in Hartlepool The manufacturing project in Hartlepool will span one million man hours

A three-year manufacturing project to build offshore gas platforms has started on Teesside.

Heerema in Hartlepool created 350 new jobs and safeguarded a further 100 when it signed the contract to build four structures destined for the North Sea.

About 10,500 tonnes of steel will be used and the company said the platforms would extract enough gas to heat 1.5 million homes.

The completed rigs will leave the yard in 2014.

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