BOSSES at an engineering company are threatening to move out of a town if they cannot find new premises there.

Whessoe Oil and Gas, in Darlington, which employs about 200 staff, will move from its home in Brinkburn Road when the lease on the site runs out later in the year.

The company has identified three possible locations in Darlington, but is not ruling out a move away from the town, with which it has enjoyed a long association.

One location it has looked at is the £12m Morton Palms business park, on the eastern edge of Darlington.

Whessoe, which has been locked in talks with local council bosses over the planned move, has confirmed an interest in moving to Morton Palms, but no deal has been agreed.

Jon Dale, managing director of Whessoe Oil and Gas, said that it was no longer viable for the company to stay at its current site because of a planned development there.

He said: "We have had some pretty productive discussions with the local council, but at this stage, we are ruling nothing in or out.

"There are three sites that we have looked at in Darlington. The other option is that we move completely out of the area.

"One way or another, we cannot stay on our current site as the lease is coming up and we have to make a decision in the next couple of months."

Whessoe Oil and Gas is a world leader in the design and construction of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) facilities.

The company, along with Darlington's Cleveland Bridge, is owned by the Saudi-based Al Rushaid Group and forms the only surviving part of the Whessoe engineering empire.

Mr Dale, who is also president of Cleveland Bridge, has overseen a transformation in Whessoe's fortunes in recent years. Its turnover this year is expected to be more than £100m.

A spokeswoman for Darlington Borough Council said: "We have been in discussions over the last few months with Whessoe. We are aiming to see how we can help them and whether we can do anything to help them stay in Darlington."