REGIONAL development agency One North East last night expressed its “disappointment” at the latest twist in the SeaDragon saga, but said it would continue to support the project.

The Northern Echo revealed yesterday how an apparent email mix-up had cast further doubts over efforts to save the oil rig project – and with it about 1,000 jobs in the North-East.

However, sources close to the project last night said all was not lost and predicted “something positive” could occur in the next few days.

The saga took a fresh turn yesterday when it was revealed how John Darlington, executive chairman of the SeaDragon group, sent an email in error to Jon Dale, director of the Tyne Tees Rigs consortium, which effectively dismissed the consortium’s efforts to keep the work to build drilling rig platforms in the North-East.

SeaDragon had previously signed a contract with another group, The Teesside Alliance Group (Tag), based in Haverton Hill, Billingham, near Stockton, but later said it planned to move the work to Singapore.

The Tyne Tees Rigs consortium, consisting of Darlingtonbased Cleveland Bridge and Mc- Nulty Offshore, of South Shields, South Tyneside, then stepped in in an attempt to secure the £300m engineering project.

Last night, Ian Williams, One North East director of business and industry, said: “We are very disappointed to learn about this latest development – this contract could bring major benefits to the North-East economy.

“One North East still remains committed to looking at what support we could give the Tyne Tees Rigs consortium should they win this work.”

There have been suggestions that SeaDragon’s keenness to move the project to Jurong, Singapore, is because of multi-million pound incentives provided by the Singapore government.

Jurong, an island off the coast of Singapore, has a deep-water port and has built up an international reputation, hosting some of the biggest petrochemical companies in the world.

A further update on the Sea Dragon negotiations with the Tyne Tees consortium is expected following another board meeting on Monday.