The Port of Lowestoft is a harbour and commercial port in Lowestoft in the English county of Suffolk owned by Associated British Ports. It is the most easterly harbour in the United Kingdom and has direct sea access to the North Sea. The harbour is made up of two sections divided by a bascule bridge. The inner harbour is formed by Lake Lothing whilst the outer harbour is constructed from breakwaters. Lowestoft handles around 30,000 tonnes of cargo per year. [1]
Traditionally the harbour was the site for an extensive fishing industry as well as engineering and shipbuilding companies such as Brooke Marine, Richards and Boulton and Paul.[2] The offshore oil and gas industry has also operated from the harbour with Shell maintaining their Southern Operations base in the harbour from the mid-1960s until 2003.[3][4] Today, the Port is a hub for renewable offshore energy generation, with companies including SSE and Scottish Power Renewables having their maintenance & operations bases at Lowestoft.