Thousands have been laid off

The US company announced in November that it was putting the yards on a care and maintenance basis.

That, it said, would mean the workforce would be cut down from around 3,700 to just the bare minimum when orders ran out in July.

Now, however, the company is hoping to win a �40m order from Kerr -McGee to build a platform for the UK's Leadon Field.

It is hoped that Barmac's dry dock at Nigg could secure the order because it would save the structure from having to be moved to another location for painting.

The work, which would amount to one million man hours, could provide a lifeline for the thousands of workers laid off in the Barmac redundancy programme.

The Ardersier and Nigg yards are about 20 years old and have been owned for five years by Barmac, a joint venture between two American multinationals - Halliburton and McDermott.